Kim Yong-beom, Chief of Staff for Policy at the Blue House, promised to expand the government's "K-New Deal Academy," a project supporting young people's entry into the labor market, stating today (June 25) that "we will provide these opportunities to more young people in the future."

In a post on his Facebook page today, Kim stated, "As this was pursued as a supplementary budget project this year, there is some regret that we could not sufficiently expand the scale due to the short time frame for program design and implementation."

The K-New Deal Academy, in which the government subsidizes costs for companies to operate vocational training programs for young people in fields specialized to their businesses, was newly launched this year for unemployed youth through a supplementary budget.

Following a recruitment process for participating companies, 107 companies applied, and 72 academy courses from 53 companies—including SK Hynix, KT, LG, and Lotte—were selected. It is expected that approximately 8,200 young people will participate in these programs.

Kim noted, "Interest is hotter than expected," adding, "By having more companies participate than anticipated in a project started to address the issue of 'idle' youth, we were able to confirm new possibilities for solving youth employment problems."

He also assessed the fact that a significant number of these academies are operating outside the capital region as a "valuable seed for balanced national development."

Kim promised, "Next year, we will expand the scope of participation to include not only large corporations but also public institutions and foreign companies, creating an ecosystem where far more companies and young people can work together than now."

(Photo: Yonhap News)