코리아펜 홈페이지에 오신것을 환영합니다.

By Woo Jae-yeon

SEOUL, Feb. 22 (Yonhap) -- On a recent cloudy day, a gymnasium at Kookmin University in northern Seoul was filled with hundreds of cheerful teenagers who were busy explaining what they think is going to be the next big thing to potential investors and curious visitors.

"My mom runs her own business, so does my dad. I thought it might be more important to participate in this event than cramming at school," said Kim Soo-yeon, a freshman from a high school in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, a suburb of Seoul.

Kim is one of a few but growing number of South Korean students who are trying to buck the trend of the country's education system that focuses mainly on producing academic high performers.

After months of sleepless nights, her team submitted an idea to use hologram technology in traffic signals. It is one of 30 teams hand-picked from 141 nationwide that joined the Youth Entrepreneurship Experience Program, or YEEP, which was started in October last year by the Ministry of Education.

"It offers an invaluable chance for them to execute what they've learned in class," said Lee Ok-soon, an economics teacher who visited her students to show her support. 

Lee Won-bin, one of Lee's students who was clad in rabbit onesie, said he believed his team's pet sitter matching website would take off, since a growing number of Koreans live with pets and need to have a safe place to leave them when they go on vacation. Quite a number of visitors have already signed up for their website, which they promote as the Airbnb for pet sitters, he said.

Designed to help young students nurture an entrepreneurial spirit and the ability to think outside the box, the program is also in line with the government's education reform initiatives, which emphasize individuality and job-centered education rather than academic excellence.

"The current education system idealizes entering a top-tier university and getting a stable job at a big conglomerate," said Kang Seok-heun, chief executive officer at BonAngels Venture Partners, a Seoul-based venture capital firm.

"I think students should be more exposed to chances to try things, even if they fail," said Kang, whose company is one of the leading venture capital firms in Korea. 

By launching the event, the government also aims to tackle the increasing youth unemployment rate that reached 9.5 percent in January, much higher than the overall unemployment rate of 3.7 percent.

As economic growth sputters and companies reduce the number of new hires, young people tend to become risk-averse and pursue a safe job such as a civil servant. The competition rate for such jobs easily passes a 100-to-1.

"It is important to let young students know that there are many different options for their future careers," said Moon Seung-tae, director of the Career Education Policy Division at the ministry, in an interview. He added that the ministry hopes to expand the program this year, if the budget allows, so that more students can participate. 

On top of great ideas and execution skills, inner strength to make the right decision at the right time is also very important for running one's own business, said Park Jae-wook, one of South Korea's successful young entrepreneurs.

Park's company Value Creators & Co. - the creator of Between, a popular app among couples who want a private, online space to share their stories - has received a series of investments from various venture capital companies, including SoftBank Ventures Korea, over the past few years.

"There is no definite answer for the success of a startup," said the 31-year-old chief executive. "You would need to develop judgment skills in the sea of different advice and create your own principles."

jaeyeon.woo@yna.co.kr