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| President Lee Myung-bak |
By Michael Ha
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak laid out new plans Monday to help the country's youth in the tight job market.
The plans include an internship program allowing young jobseekers to gain experience in government offices and small businesses, while looking for permanent employment; a 750-billion-won ($514 million) budget to develop workers in new and emerging industries; and a finance program to help university graduates who suffer from low credit rating because of their inability to pay back tuition loans.
In his biweekly radio address, the President also said that his administration would help up to 100,000 young jobseekers spend time abroad for professional training and volunteer services over the next five years.
The administration will also expand ``working holiday'' programs. Currently, Korea has work-and-travel agreements with Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and France and they can include up to 30,000 young people every year. President Lee said he would expand these programs to include eight additional countries and make them available to some 60,000 every year.
He said he will quickly put into motion the ``WEST'' program - ``Work, English Study and Travel'' an agreement signed in August allowing some 5,000 young Koreans to enter the United States every year on 18-month visas.
Lee also advised jobseekers to consider working for small-and medium-sized companies and in rural areas. He said, ``We hear that some young jobseekers will accept temporary, non-staff jobs but that they won't look at opportunities in small regional companies. That is not an ideal attitude for them to have.''
``Honestly my heart sinks when I think about the youth unemployment. The tight job market for them brings pain not just to these young jobseekers but also to our families and indeed all Koreans. It's a big concern for our country,'' President Lee said.
But he added it's not just young Koreans who are having a hard time finding good jobs. ``The high unemployment rate among the young is not a unique phenomenon that's limited to Korea,'' Lee said. ``Korea's youth unemployment rate stands at 7 percent. Many developed countries have a youth unemployment rate that is higher than 10 percent.''
Lee urged young jobseekers to be ``courageous and start working somewhere.'' He said ``blaming the job market and just waiting for an ideal, comfortable job is not the solution.''
``That's what I did too. When I started at Hyundai Engineering and Construction, it was just a small business with just 90 employees at the time. When I first started at the company, they sent me to an overseas construction site,'' Lee recalled. ``It was difficult work. But I also gained valuable experience that no money could buy. My experience during those early years helped me in my career.''
He said, ``We are facing a once-in-a-lifetime kind of global economic crisis. Jobseekers shouldn't just passively wait for their ideal employers.''
[출처 : 코리아타임스]
