The Youth Development Administration （YDA）, Ministry of Education （MOE）, was formerly the National Youth Commission, Executive Yuan. It was incorporated into the MOE in 2013 in cooperation with government reorganization. Some programs and personnel were merged into the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Labor, according to the nature of their work. Over the years, the YDA has established diverse experiential learning environments for youth, raised youth core competitiveness, built the capacity of youth for comprehensive development, targeted shaping youth values, and proactively promoted other programs to assist youth development from the perspective of meeting the needs of society and young people.
The YDA cooperates with the MOE’s policy vision of developing outstanding creative talent and boosting international competitiveness by pursuing a policy vision of establishing diverse learning platforms to train youth to become leaders in innovation and reform. We value youth human resources and their applications, and we emphasize functionality and subjectivity in connection with formal learning contexts and learning through diverse experiences. Our work can be divided into three main actions.
- 1.Promote youth career counseling and build innovation capacity
To build the capacity of young people to develop diverse employment skills we strengthen youth career counseling systems, improve the functionality of school counseling services, encourage youth to develop their careers, and open up diverse workplace experience opportunities. We continue to promote career exploration for young junior high school graduates who have not gone on to further education or employment. To develop future outstanding talent in innovation and entrepreneurship we run a youth innovation capacity building program through our creativity contest.
- 2.
Encourage youth volunteering and stimulate public participation
We continue to promote the Let’s Talk series of events, establish platforms for youth policy participation, enable youth to actively participate in public affairs, and strengthen the two-track guidance mechanism for college student autonomy. We encourage youth to participate in community affairs and actively develop talent for public participation. Integrating the resources of local governments, nongovernmental organizations, schools, and other organizations, and connecting with local youth social innovation service teams, we together promote volunteer service, hold award ceremonies for outstanding teams, and motivate the next wave of youth social activism.
- 3.
Strengthen diverse learning and broaden the international outlook of young people
We promote youth international participation; encourage young people to attend international conferences, events, or programs; network with international youth affairs organizations; and raise the international outlook of young people. To encourage young people to volunteer abroad we run the Youth Overseas Peace Corps. We promote youth travel and experiential learning, plan specific youth travel and experiential learning activities, provide multiple channels for youth travel in Taiwan, and encourage young people to experience the local culture and environment and explore their self-worth.