According to the Korean Economic Research Institute, 46.1% of university students said that the environment for new recruitment is harder than last year. This unemployment crisis has been a serious problem for many years. CNU’s Institute for Adaptable Interdisciplinary Education (IAIE) has operated an ‘Employment Supporters’ program in each college. The supporters give information about employment notices and useful empowerment programs to their college students. The Chonnam Tribune interviewed some members of the Employment Supporters program to listen to them talk about their activities and experiences.

What does the Employment Supporters program do?
Park Hong-eun: We usually give information to students about employment notices and off-campus activities by making a calendar with the due dates. We also promote important and helpful CNU programs by making credit card news. Although job and career information can be found on the website, it is better for us to organize all of the information and tell students directly. It is possible to promote our activities, too.

Why did you apply for the Employment Supporters program?
Yun Yeong-ju: I actually am just a general student of CNU. I have worries about the future and try my best to find the best way for me. It is reality that every student does not really have definite solutions. I wanted to help students at least a bit in these tough situations by giving them various pieces of job and career information.

Which programs did you conduct?
An Ho-yeon: I participated in employment alumni mentoring in May, which is a program where many people from public enterprises gave speeches. Our supporter team participated in many programs such as the employment preparation team program, and the youth passion challenge program in the Liberal Education Center at CNU to tell other students how the program actually works in detail.

What is the benefit of being an Employment Supporter?
Yun Yeong-ju: The university’s support itself can be one benefit, but I think the most important one is the wide variety of information that we can get. We have to look for a lot of information about employment and look for good and diverse programs as employment supporters, rather than looking at them from general students’ point of view.

What are the plans for the fall semester?
Wi Ji-seong: We plan to run an open chatting room on Kakao Talk and give five bits of information about off-campus activities and programs related to recruitment each week. We intend to make this information into card news so that students can easily read it. Moreover, our members will participate in major-related programs and upload reviews on Instagram directly.

What do you want to say to CNU students?
An Ho-yeon: The IAIE has many programs each month, but, the participation rate is not that high. If you try to find information related to careers or jobs that you’re interested in, you can join good programs organized by the institute. I promise those will be helpful for your employment preparation.

* The launch ceremony for the 2019 fall semester Employment Supporters took place on September 20. They have been leading the promotion and monitoring programs for students’ capability enhancement and employment. With the information from employment supporters’ activities, let’s raise our competitiveness and get ready for employment.
 

By Lee Eun-ji, Student Editor

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Employment Supporters in four colleges of CNU
- Park Hong-eun (Sophomore, Dept. of History)
- Wi Ji-seong (Junior, Division of Food and Nutrition)
- Yun Yeong Ju (Junior, Dept. of Energy and Resources Engineering)
- An Ho-yeon (Junior, Faculty of Business Administration)