Gyeonggi Province Connects Retired Baby Boomers' Expertise with SMEs to Create Second-Half-of-Life Opportunities

[Suwon Ilbo = Reporter Park Noh-hun] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 5th that it is promoting the "2021 Job Creation Support Project for Retirees in Their 50s and 60s" to link professionally retired workforce in their 50s and 60s with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to resolve managerial challenges and create middle-aged employment opportunities, and is recruiting participants.

This project utilizes the specialized expertise of baby boomer retirees in their 50s and 60s to provide customized consulting in the R&D; and export sectors targeting SMEs that lack professional knowledge and technology.

The recruitment target is individuals born on or before December 1972 who have a registered residential address in Gyeonggi Province as of the application date, are unemployed, and are specialized retirees capable of providing consulting in "R&D; project planning" and "export market" fields.

For the "R&D;" field, individuals can apply if they are industry, academic, or research experts capable of business diagnostics, business plan writing support, business idea selection, product development certification, and R&D; capacity enhancement.

For the "export market" field, applicants must have at least 5 years of work experience in overseas marketing, trade, and export-related fields, and can participate after verification of foreign language proficiency, counseling capability, and planning ability.

Participating companies can be any SME located in Gyeonggi Province that wants to receive consulting on overseas export marketing capacity building without restrictions on R&D; project participation.

This year, the province plans to match 80 specialized retiree consultants with 140 SMEs. Following the matching, consulting will be conducted 4 or more times per month in both online and offline formats for 6 months. If necessary, the consulting period can be extended for an additional 3 months.

In particular, the province plans to conduct satisfaction surveys with participating companies to identify requirements and areas for improvement, provide feedback to specialized retiree consultants, and ensure the project becomes one that allows participants to feel substantive benefits.

Retired professionals participating as specialized consultants will receive activity allowances and travel expenses of 500,000 won per person per month (400,000 won from the province, 100,000 won from participating companies).

Specialized retirees and SMEs wishing to participate in the project can apply through online platforms (R&D; field: www.egbiz.or.kr, export market field: www.5060business.com) by submitting application forms and related documents. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis starting from February this year.

A Gyeonggi Province official stated, "This project aims to support management stability and sales growth of participating SMEs through customized consulting reflecting their needs, and to create stable employment for people in their 50s and 60s. We hope for keen interest and participation from specialized retirees in their 50s and 60s preparing for second-half-of-life opportunities and SMEs seeking specialized expertise."

Last year, through this project, the province matched approximately 80 specialized consultants with approximately 140 SMEs, achieving results including 69 R&D; research projects, 27 patent applications, 74 jobs created, and export contracts totaling 7.87 million dollars. In satisfaction surveys, 98% of responding companies reported overall satisfaction.

For more detailed information about the project, inquiries can be made to the Gyeonggi Province Employment and Economic Policy Division, Employment Services Team (031-8030-2872).