MEETING: AKBC meets with the Korean Education Centre in Sydney

Last week, we met with Jiyoung Kwon, Director of the Korean Education Centre in Sydney. ⁠
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The Korean Education Centre is dedicated to promoting Korean education, advocating for Korean as a second language in Australian schools, and providing valuable information about studying in Korea.⁠
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The Centre supports government scholarship students and fosters global education collaboration through programs like the Australian Principals Korean Study Tour (APKST) and Korean Language Teacher Training Programs with the University of Melbourne.⁠
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Despite there being huge demand for Korean Language at a tertiary level - (for example, there are 900 students at Monash University and 350 students at University of Melbourne studying Korean language), and Korea being Australia's 3rd largest trading partner, only approximately six primary schools in Victoria are teaching Korean language as part of their LOTE program. As a comparison, there are approximately 250 primary schools in Victoria teaching Japanese. To us, this seems like a missed opportunity, especially if we want to educate the next generation on how to engage with Korea to elevate the Australia-Korea economic relationship. ⁠