Donations to the Youth Hope Fund Charitable Trust, proposed by President Park Geun-hye, have passed over 100 billion KRW. It took about 100 days to raise the money since 21 September 2015, when President Park Geun-hye became the first donor to the fund. According to the Youth Hope Foundation “about 98.75 billion KRW has been raised as of 3 December 2015, with the impending donations from Kyobo Life Insurance and KCC Corporation pushing that amount up to 103.8 billion KRW.” According to Guidestar Korea, an information service that reports on nonprofit organizations, Youth Hope Fund raised three times the amount given to the Korean Red Cross (32.5 billion KRW), and twice the donation to Korea Food for the Hungry International (58.9 billion KRW). Youth Fund Foundation said that “the 100 billion KRW suggests that the whole nation is concerned about the youth unemployment crisis, and the fund will be used very effectively.”
The Foundation is planning to provide job training and other employment services to approximately 2,100 youths and create 700 new jobs through ▲matching youth job seekers with venture enterprises ▲ the Convergence Culture Project and ▲ Training premium tour guides.
Matching youth job seekers with venture enterprises involves introducing young people with ability to venture enterprises, in cooperation with the Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and private institutions for business incubation. Enterprises which hire youths through this service will receive an employment subsidy for 6 months.
The Convergence Culture Project will first focus on developing mobile game promoters to meet the high demand for personnel, while sales and the number of people in the mobile game industry rapidly increase. The Foundation is planning to conclude an employment agreement with game companies, select project beneficiaries, prepare training programs and support actual employment by the game companies. The project will begin in January 2016, with 30 youth job seekers. Additional applications will be accepted, and a total of 90 job seekers will receive training.
Development of superior tour guides involves supporting youth job seekers with certification for interpretation and guiding tourists, by providing history and cultural education courses. The Foundation will sign agreements with travel agencies such as Hana Tour ITC, and help agencies to hire such job seekers as exclusive freelancers after they finish assessments and internships. The first course (Chinese language) will start in January 2016 with 30 participants.