Seoul’s Gangseo-gu (Mayor Jin Kyo-hoon) is accepting applications from 100 residents for the second round of its Lifelong Learning Voucher program, an initiative meant to safeguard residents’ right to continuing education. Applications will be accepted for 19 days, from July 9 through July 27, and those selected will receive 350,000 won each in points that can be spent on course fees and textbooks. The second round covers the slots left unfilled after the first round, and recipients will be chosen across four categories: general, digital, senior and disabled.
The voucher program subsidizes tuition and study materials so that cost does not force residents to postpone learning. The funds can be applied to virtually any field, from professional certifications and entrepreneurship to foreign languages and the humanities, making the program unusually flexible. The points, however, must be used by the end of this year, and residents can check which institutions accept them in advance on the Seoul Lifelong Learning Voucher website (www.lllcard.kr/seoul).
The quotas by category are 63 general vouchers (adults 19 and older), 15 digital vouchers (adults 30 and older), 11 senior vouchers (65 and older) and 11 vouchers for residents with disabilities (registered persons with disabilities aged 19 and older). Applicants may not apply under more than one category, so they should weigh their age and eligibility before deciding which one fits.
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If the number of eligible applicants exceeds the quota, recipients of basic livelihood security benefits and members of the near-poverty bracket will be selected first, with the remaining slots filled by random lottery. Because selection is not first-come, first-served, applying at any point during the window is sufficient, and the structure is designed to give residents in financial hardship the first opportunity.
Applications are to be filed online as a rule. General, digital and senior vouchers are handled through the Seoul Lifelong Learning Voucher website, while vouchers for residents with disabilities go through the government’s Gov24 benefits notification site (plus.gov.kr). Residents 65 and older and those with disabilities who are not comfortable using the internet may apply in person at the Gangseo-gu Office’s Education Support Division (114 Ujangsan-ro, third floor of the Facilities Management Corporation building). The exception appears intended to keep a single online channel from raising the barrier to entry for residents with limited access to information.
Successful applicants will have the subsidy credited as points to an NH Nonghyup Chaeum card (credit or check). Results will be posted on the Lifelong Learning Voucher website in early August, and those selected will also be notified by individual text message. Further details on applying are available in the public notices section of the Gangseo-gu Office website.
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Lifelong learning is widely regarded as a channel for supporting re-employment, career transitions and digital adaptation amid an aging population and shifting industrial structures. Yet the cost of tuition and textbooks remains a practical barrier that turns people away even when the will to learn is there. The decision to set aside separate quotas for digital, senior and disabled categories, rather than treating all adults as a single pool, reads as an effort to narrow gaps in access to learning.
“I hope this voucher program becomes an occasion to offer broad educational opportunities to every resident who wants to learn,” Mayor Jin Kyo-hoon said. “We will continue providing careful support so that no one — including older residents and residents with disabilities — is left out of the joy of lifelong learning.”
For more information, contact the Seoul Lifelong Learning Voucher call center at 1551-4777 or the Gangseo-gu Office’s Education Support Division at 02-2600-6982.
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