"Let's Learn Vocational Training Know-how" Influx of Foreign Visitors

320 Domestic and International Visitors This Year
Foundation Establishes Protocol Team to Welcome Guests

"Just two years ago, we were in a position to benchmark against major domestic facilities, and now foreign training delegations are visiting our facilities—it truly feels like a different era."

Gu Hoe-gun, of the Public Relations and Marketing Team handling protocol duties at the Hwaseong City Cultural Foundation, made this remark as the number of visitors has recently increased to learn the foundation's program expertise.

At 11 a.m. on the 15th, about 30 foreign women stepped off a large bus that had stopped in front of the U&I; Center located in Byeongjeom-dong, Hwaseong, with bright smiles and expressions full of anticipation.

They are senior government officials from central ministries and NGO representatives from nine countries in Southeast Asia and Africa who are visiting Korea from the 4th to the 22nd for educational training as part of an ODA (Official Development Assistance) project overseen by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

This project is one of South Korea's priority initiatives to develop vocational skills among women in less developed countries.

On that day, the training delegation listened to briefings about the foundation and the operation of the Women's New Work Center in a conference room on the third floor, observed vocational training programs including home interior design and men's haircut courses within the center, and directly participated in practical training at the site.

Particularly during a traditional Korean rice cake-making course, participants directly handled glutinous rice and other ingredients to make "Duri Duteopsdan-ja," a traditional Korean rice cake, enjoying a pleasant time.

Oumy Baro from Senegal, director of the Dakar Women's Association who participated in the training that day, expressed strong interest, saying "The programs operated here are very impressive" and "I plan to apply them to fit our circumstances when I return home."

The training delegation stayed for approximately four hours until 3 p.m. that day, reviewing various contents, programs, and facilities operated by the Hwaseong City Cultural Foundation, and also held a mini-workshop to summarize their training experience.

Hwang Shin-hae, team leader of the International Exchange Foundation overseeing educational programs, said "The U&I; Center has complex-integrated facilities related to culture and education, making facility flow management easy, and the educational operation programs are at the highest level," adding that it is "optimal for our intended training purpose."

Additionally, the production team for KBS-2TV's "VJ Commando" plans to film the entire training process and air it on the 29th, suggesting that more visitors will be seeking to learn about the U&I; Center's operational know-how.

In addition, the U&I; Center has welcomed about 320 visitors from home and abroad this year, including the leadership delegation of the Busan Association of Persons with Disabilities and related government officials' training delegation, senior officials related to women's policies at Mongolian central ministries, and Pakistani government officials' training delegation.

Seeing a continuous increase in visitors, the center newly established protocol duties within the public relations team last January.