Education ministry-funded youth overseas program to start in 2025

Taipei, Nov. 21 (CNA) The Ministry of Education (MOE) said Thursday that a program designed to encourage young people to participate in volunteering, internships, and other learning activities overseas with government funding will begin receiving applications next year.

At a Cabinet news conference, MOE Deputy Minister Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said the program, supported by the newly established Youth Overseas Dream Fund, would aim to help young people go abroad and "broaden their horizons."

The MOE said it hoped to select around 550 young people in 2025 for the program, which is open to Taiwanese nationals aged 15 to 30.

Those who are interested in the program can submit their own proposals to the MOE, outlining where they wish to go and what they hope to learn from such an experience, Yeh said.

The deputy minister encouraged young people with "good ideas," regardless of their family's financial status, to apply, noting that the MOE would connect them with experts to help turn their ideas into feasible proposals.

Selected applicants will receive grants of up to NT$2 million (US$61,426) for their own proposals, the MOE said.

Apart from presenting their own proposals, young people can also simply apply for overseas projects developed by the MOE and other government agencies, Yeh said.

He added that projects currently being negotiated included student tours to the central government agencies in France as well as to different Indigenous villages in Canada.

Detailed information about the program will be available in January, the MOE said.

According to the MOE, the government will allocate NT$10 billion over the next four years to the Youth Overseas Dream Fund from the annual central government budgets.

At the press event, Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) also cited Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) as saying earlier on Thursday that the program sought to help young people pursue their dreams, with the hope that they would, in turn, contribute their professional skills to the country in the future.