Youth Development Administration Ministry of Education

Global Youth Trends Forum” brings together exchanges of local Taiwanese experiences in a two-day forum, held each year around October to November. The forum is open to 18-35 year old young people. For foreign youth, each year around April-June, ROC embassies and representative offices overseas help advertise the forum. Anyone interested can apply. Pay attention to the ROC embassy/office website for the announcement, or check YDA official website.

We set up Youth Travel Spots all over Taiwan, to offer young travelers year-round services that are frill-free but give you a real taste of the local culture. Resources include travel experiential-learning information and advice, backpack storage, guided tours and much more. The program also has experiential-learning activities based on the seven themes of cultural, indigenous, ecological, agricultural, fishery, voluntary and physical. These diverse opportunities help young people learn about the unique character of local communities, and experience genuine Taiwanese life and culture. The program also improves access and opportunities for youth travel experiential-learning. Every Youth Travel Spot has rich life stories waiting for you to explore, experience and study. 15-30 year-old youth from Taiwan and overseas can go to your Youth Travel website （youthtravel.tw） to join. Before registering, you can search for the activity and session you want to join, and sign up online. For questions write to: youthtravelspots@mail.yda.gov.tw.

The U-start Plan for Innovation and Entrepreneurship （“U-start Plan”） was founded in 1999. With the goal of promoting a culture of campus innovation and entrepreneurship, the U-start plan combines the incubation and innovation resources of colleges and universities to help young students bring out their youthful passion for creativity, and give them the opportunity to realize their own start-up dreams.

Teams that pass the evaluations for the first stage of the Plan can receive US$11,000 in subsidies. Start-up teams receive guidance and assistance from their incubation unit for at least six months. Teams that score highly in the evaluations during the second stage of the Plan are given startup awards of US$8,000 to US$32,000.

Apart from the various amounts of prize money given to winning teams, the U-start Plan also provides resources such as walk-in entrepreneurship consultation services, on-site visit services, the U-start Club and related community activities, and business opportunities with the New Southbound Policy. These resources help U-start startups establish a stronger footing and maintain their development.

Students intending to start up their own business are welcome to visit the U-start official website （https://ustart.yda.gov.tw/bin/home.php） or join the Facebook fan page （https://www.facebook.com/USTARTFans/） for the latest updates.

• The Intelligent Ironman Creativity Contest is divided into preliminaries, semifinals and finals. Registration for the preliminaries is open annually from December to February of the following year. Current Taiwanese high school and vocational high school students are welcome to form teams to register for the preliminary round. One team must have at least 4-6 members, and sign up as a team. The preliminaries take place simultaneously in four regions of Taiwan. In principle the contest takes eight hours. Teams with an outstanding grade from the preliminaries （60-61 teams） go on to the semifinals. In principle the semifinal lasts 24 hours to select 24-25 teams for the final. In principle, finalists must continue to work for 72 hours （to test their stamina） to design, produce and test a something-out-of-nothing product for assessment by the judges.
• In addition, to encourage Taiwanese students to expand their international horizons, each year we invite 6-8 countries to send teams to Taiwan to take part in the final and an international invitational contest （in principle the international name list is confirmed in May, and usually the contest takes place in July-August）. Teams that win first, second and third place in the Taiwanese national contest, can take on the selected international teams （one team per country）, to select the final first, second and third place teams. The champion wins NT$150,000, second place is NT$80,000, and third place is NT$50,000. For details please logon to the contest website http://ironman.creativity.edu.tw.

1. The project allows student unions to hold courses tailored to their different situations and needs, and apply to YDA for funding. 
2. Student unions that want to organize events can find relevant information on the Student Union Information Exchange Platform.

The Let’s Talk series trains youth in deliberation skills and empowers them to hold deliberative discussions. These Talk events turn reflection on issues into momentum to participate in policy making, enter into the spirit of open government, and incorporate young people’s ideas and creativity into government administration.

The YDA holds the Global Youth Trends Forum each year. We invite representatives and leaders of international youth organizations to Taiwan to take part in forum activities. The forum gives local and foreign youth the opportunity to network with international organization representatives, trains them to have a comprehensive international outlook, enables them to explore international issues, and achieves our goal of international exchange and mutual learning.
 

The YDA has set up a Facebook page for the Global Youth Trends Forum （fb.com/globalyouthtrendsforum）. The page is an exchange platform for youth at home and abroad to understand global trends and get updates on the latest events.

To encourage young people aged 18 to 35 years old to volunteer overseas, the YDA runs a Youth Overseas Volunteer Team Sponsorship Project and a Long-term Youth Overseas Volunteer Promotion Project. We also offer youth overseas volunteer teams pre-departure training in multiculturalism, event safety, risk management, and other knowledge and skills.

We don’t directly recruit overseas volunteers. Instead, we sponsor youth teams to volunteer overseas and encourage young people to take part in overseas volunteering. Youth can go through colleges and universities or nongovernmental organizations to apply for YDA funding. 

The YDA partners with local nonprofit organizations and universities to set up youth travel spots nationwide in a nonprofit way. By organizing cultural, indigenous, ecological, farming, fishing, voluntary, sports, and other diverse activities we help youth aged 15 to 35 years old from home and abroad to experience the local life and culture of Taiwan. We also provide a convenient youth travel information and advice service that is an entry point for young people to get to know the countryside, travel all over Taiwan, and engage in deeper studies. Information on youth travel spot events is posted on the Youth Travel in Taiwan website （youthtravel.tw）, where you can also register online. If you have any questions, please email youthtravel@mail.yda.gov.tw.

Touching Taiwan Youth Travel Program encourages youth aged 15 to 35 years old to design multifaceted travel tours, broaden their horizons, and cultivate self-directed learning and the ability to work in a team, while also exploring Taiwan’s unique local culture. Each year, around January to March, we invite youth teams to submit proposals. Two or more people can form a team to submit a travel proposal. Youth from home and abroad can jointly form teams to take part, provided that at least one team member is a Taiwanese youth. All team members must fully participate while the program is being implemented （at least 10 days between June and August）. High-school students can register as Seedling Teams and youth aged 18 to 35 years old can register as Dreamer Teams. Selected teams will be awarded funding to implement their projects after completing consensus building training. They should also take part in the results assessment event at the end of the year. For more information on this project check, the Youth Travel Experiential Learning website （youthtravel.tw）.