On February 29, the Youth Entrepreneurship Program held its first commencement ceremony to honor the graduation of the 212 program participants. A result of collaboration efforts between the Small and medium Business Corporation and Small and Medium Business Administration, the intensive boot camp for aspiring entrepreneurs opened its doors in March 2011.

Graduates, their families, and friends as well as newly enrolled students attended the celebration, joined by the President Lee Myung Bak, SMBA President Jong-ho Song, SBC President Cheol-kyu Park, Korea Venture Business Association President Min-woo Nam, and successful entrepreneurs.

The Youth Entrepreneurship Program represents a start-up accelerator designed to help young aspiring entrepreneurs aged 39 and younger who wish to commercialize technology intensive new businesses. More specifically, the project revolves around various support measures that cover every step of the process-from planning through commercialization.

As a ground-breaking initiative to provide one-stop services that include training, coaching, office space, and development support, the program is committed to shorten the commercialization lead time and improve the success rate. To help achieve the stated goals, interim assessments are made to identify participants with sub-par performance, who are encouraged to drop out of the program. Subsequent support is also in store in the form of marketing and commercialization loan programs.

* recruited 241 participants → made two interim assessment → 29 dropped out → 212 graduated (as of 2011)

All these efforts are bearing fruits. The participants have been internationally recognized for innovative capacity. They received 43 medals from various invention awards in Korea, Germany and the United States. The cumulative revenues come to $17 million. As many as 368 patents and other intellectual properties are awarded and pending. More than 610 new jobs were created for young people to fill in.

This January saw a recruiting process start off in earnest to recruit 240 new participants for the second batch. "We plan to offer office space in SBC regional training center located in Gwangju, Gyeongsan, and Changwon," a SBC official noted. "The move is expected to spread the spirit of entrepreneurship across the nation."