To encourage youth across Taiwan to engage in local development and actively participate in community affairs, the Youth Development Administration, MoE has opened registration for the 2024 Learning Youth Hubs Dreamer Training and On-site Practice program. Spread across Taiwan, these 25 distinctive Youth Hubs will offer over a hundred diverse courses and practical opportunities, allowing youths who are passionate about their hometowns and have ideas for community affairs to evolve from dreamers to practitioners under the guidance of experts in various fields.
The training content at the Youth Hubs is divided into two main components: Local Courses and On-site Practice. The local courses are open to youths aged 15 to 35 and will start with curricula revolving around local characteristics. Through formats such as specialized lectures, field walks, visit discussions, and experience exchanges, these courses aim to build a sense of identification with the local area among youths, delve deeply into the unique aspects of their hometowns, and inspire imagination towards local revitalization. To encourage enthusiastic registration and reduce financial burdens, this year's program does not require a deposit, and there is no limit on the number of classes one can attend. We invite all who love this land to join in preserving this goodwill, to actively attend classes, and to make good use of public resources.
The on-site practice component offers youths aged 18 to 35 the opportunity to engage directly in community affairs. Those selected through the Youth Hubs interview process will have the chance to immerse themselves in community matters, developing skills to understand local situations and address bottlenecks. Participants who successfully complete at least 20 days of the on-site project will receive a practical scholarship of NT$20,000. Under the one-on-one guidance of industry mentors, they will be transformed into immediate assets for future local development.
This year, among the 25 Youth Hubs, there are 11 new local teams with diverse topics that include themes like the forest circular carbon economy and local bookstores focusing on environmental and cultural sustainability; there are also teams specializing in creating local reality games and designing digital interactive entertainment such as community walk-throughs. These instructors, who have long cultivated local areas, will showcase their expertise and bring unprecedented and exciting content to the participants. This year's local courses have even expanded to Penghu and Hengchun. Participants eager to experience the beauty of Taiwan should seize this opportunity and let the Youth Hubs guide them to explore every corner of Taiwan.
The Youth Development Administration, MoE aims through the Youth Hubs activities to cultivate the enthusiasm of youth for developing their hometowns and to provide resources and opportunities for those with ideals about community affairs to realize their ideas. Not only accumulating experience and knowledge during the training process, but participants may also become new Youth Hubs themselves, continuing the legacy in successive generations and collectively becoming the backbone of future local development.
Youths who meet the qualifications and are interested in engaging in local actions are welcome to visit the Youth Community Participation and Action 2.0 - Changemaker Project website at https://changemaker.yda.gov.tw/. Here, they can register for courses based on their location and topics of interest, embarking on a journey to explore, achieve, and transform their locales.