Gwangju to launch international student entrepreneurship program

Gwangju Metropolitan City Hall in Seo District, Gwangju. The city government announced it will be arranging internships and startup preparation courses for international students. [JANG JEONG-PIL]

Gwangju has announced that it will launch an international student entrepreneurship support program, offering internships and startup courses to international students in the city.

Internships arranged by the city will be open to international students attending universities in Gwangju, according to the city on Thursday.

Details were discussed at a city meeting with officials from organizations such as Gwangju Technopark, Gwangju Center for Creative Economy & Innovation and Gwangju Information & Content Agency.

The city will be accepting applications from Gwangju-based companies that want to hire international students as interns in April, with internship applications also slated to open around the same month.

Gwangju will be partially covering the interns' salaries to incentivize companies to apply for the program and hire more students.

Selected students will go through pre-internship training, participating in a six-month internship that starts around July and August.

The city will also expand its existing entrepreneurship training program, also offered only to international students.

A total of 25 international students took startup courses organized by the city last year, which taught them about Korea's business environment and connected them with mentors.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]