The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has announced plans to invest KRW 43 billion to nurture over 3,400 talents in response to the changing content industry environment driven by AI technology. This initiative, in collaboration with the Korea Creative Content Agency, aims to ensure sustainable growth for K-content. A key focus is adapting to new content creation environments, such as generative AI. Prospective trainees can check the annual schedule and apply according to their career and future plans.
A new core project, the ‘AI-Specialized Content Academy,’ will be launched this year with a budget of KRW 19.2 billion. The program will train 900 preliminary and unskilled personnel, 100 skilled professionals, and 100 game industry job seekers and entrepreneurs, totaling 1,200 AI-utilizing specialists. The preliminary/unskilled course combines AI tool theory, practice, and expert guidance, while the skilled course focuses on practical content production. Game sector trainees will be recruited twice, in February and June, at the Game Talent Institute.
The ministry is also strengthening field-oriented education through the ‘Creative Talent Companion Project’ and specialized training by sector. With a budget of KRW 9.7 billion, the Creative Talent Companion Project offers close guidance from top experts, such as director Jang Jae-hyun of ‘Exhuma,’ writer Moon Ji-won of ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo,’ and composer Cho Byung-hyun of ‘Reborn Rich.’ In April, 300 aspiring creators aged 19 to 34 will be selected. For the OTT video sector, 1,000 professionals will receive specialized training in planning and post-production in partnership with Netflix. Tailored training is also provided for webtoon, animation, pop music, and popular culture arts.
To strengthen K-content’s overseas market entry, a content export specialist training program will select 100 new and current professionals from April to May. Participants will receive practical training in overseas market research and export marketing theory. Detailed recruitment guidelines and schedules for each project are available at KOCCA (www.kocca.kr) and EduKOCCA (edu.kocca.kr). Lim Seong-han, Director of Cultural Industry Policy, emphasized that providing growth ladders for next-generation talents is key to a sustainable future for the cultural content industry.