Youth Startup Academy abolished after 16 years, replaced by Retry Success School next year

Graduates fear reduced follow-up support; professors face job insecurity

Ministry says support will continue, but industry blames 'startups for all' push

[Image created with ChatGPT]
[Image created with ChatGPT]

The government has cut the entire budget for the Youth Startup Academy, which has run for 16 years, from next year's budget proposal. Professors and graduates are pushing back. They worry that the government's push for a "startups for all" policy will lead to the consolidation of the Youth Startup Academy and the loss of all existing benefits. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups said support for existing graduates will not disappear across the board.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups' 2027 budget proposal, announced Sept. 1, states that the Youth Startup Academy will end after its 16th cohort this year. Starting next year, the ministry will use the academy's nationwide hubs, facilities and staff to run a new Retry Success School instead. The ministry will transform the space that once helped first-time entrepreneurs commercialize their businesses and enter the market into one supporting entrepreneurs seeking to restart after failure. The ministry has allocated 59.5 billion won ($44.4 million) to the Retry Success School to support failure analysis, tailored education and consulting, and business model redesign.

The Youth Startup Academy has faced criticism over its operations. Critics point to its 19 nationwide hubs — too many — and inconsistent management, with some run directly by the Korea SMEs and Startups Agency and others outsourced to private operators. Investigators also found a case in which someone fraudulently received 106 million won in government support using false tax invoices. "There were also persistent internal complaints that some outsourced operators favored certain company heads with preferential treatment," said one graduate of the academy.

Still, professors and graduates oppose the closure, arguing that operational problems should be fixed through improved regulations rather than abolition. Their biggest complaint is that the ministry announced the decision to shut down the program abruptly, without consulting those on the ground. "This means dismantling the nationwide hubs, operational know-how and entrepreneur network built up over 16 years of budget investment," an official with the academy's alumni association said. "We are making efforts on multiple fronts, including trying to hold a National Assembly debate, to stop the closure."

The pushback also stems from concern over follow-up support. Even after companies graduate, the academy has managed them for five more years, offering additional support such as participation in overseas exhibitions, crowdfunding, overseas IR sessions and links to policy projects. Alumni are deeply concerned that this graduate-exclusive program will disappear. "It is not easy to develop a product within a year of graduating — that is why follow-up support matters," one graduate said. "There are alumni who developed a product within three years of receiving follow-up support and expanded to as many as four physical stores."

The Global Youth Startup Academy and Deep Tech Youth Startup Academy — advanced programs that graduates of the academy could move on to — are also reportedly being eliminated as part of the restructuring. Both programs allowed companies within seven years of founding to apply regardless of when they graduated from the Youth Startup Academy. Selected companies received up to 200 million won each in commercialization funding, along with support for overseas expansion, investment attraction and technology commercialization programs.

Alumni also cited weakening networks as a problem. "We have relied on infrastructure such as receiving venue support at the academy's main campus in Ansan and publicizing events through the contact network of graduate companies," an official with the general alumni association said. "Based on a community of more than 1,000 members, we even built our own alumni fund to invest in younger companies, but if the inflow of new graduates stops, the scalability of this kind of network could suffer."

Professors' jobs are also at stake. "Early-stage startup support is a process of helping people commercialize an idea and gain a foothold in the market, while retry support is about analyzing why an existing business failed and redesigning its business model," said A, a former professor at the academy. "The mentoring required is fundamentally different." There is concern that professors who have nurtured early-stage startups at the academy may lack the expertise needed to suddenly take on retry-focused companies next year. This could also affect employment for some staff.

According to those familiar with the situation, most professors at the academy are civil-service-track employees, but at some branches, 10 to 20 percent work on one-year contracts. Contract staff can renew their contracts or gain a chance to convert to permanent civil-service positions based on performance evaluations. Existing professors at the academy have faced performance pressure managing KPIs such as their assigned companies' sales and investment attraction. If the Retry Success School also sets KPIs, the change in the nature of the work could affect the career paths of some professors.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups maintains that abolishing the academy will not eliminate follow-up support for existing graduates. "Follow-up support is less about disbursing funds directly and more about guiding or connecting companies with policy funding, exports, or workforce training programs suited to their situation," a ministry official said. "Benefits such as five years of post-graduation management support and access to information systems will remain available as they are." However, the official said the ministry has not yet decided whether the academy's existing staff will continue to individually guide and connect graduate companies with specific projects as they do now.

On the question of professors' employment, the ministry said its principle is to retain existing staff. It noted that their current work — managing commercialization funds and startup coaching — overlaps with what will be needed at the Retry Success School. However, a ministry official said, "We are aware of concerns on the ground that early-stage startup support and retry support are different in nature. We will design the details of the new program's operation in consultation with the professors."


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