Starbucks Korea said on the 28th that it held the "2026 Starbucks-JA Korea Job Fair" in Seoul and Busan to strengthen young people's job-seeking capabilities.
Starbucks Korea held the fair in Busan on the 27th-28th following the Seoul fair on the 20th-21st, and estimated that about 1,000 adolescents and young adults participated over the four days.
Co-hosted with the youth education nonprofit JA Korea, the event offered mock interviews, career counseling, coffee classes and job lectures for people ages 19-34 who are interested in barista roles or preparing for employment.
Store managers, district managers and support center employees at Starbucks took part as mentors, sharing hiring procedures and job experiences. Training by a Certified Public Labor Attorney on employment contracts and pay statements, and classes on writing self-introductions and interview strategies were also held.
Starbucks plans to expand job opportunities for young people by running a separate recruitment track linked with JA Korea.
Since 2015, Starbucks has run career education and recruitment-linked programs with JA Korea. To date, it has supported the employment of about 21,000 adolescents and young adults and facilitated the hiring of more than 600 people. As of September this year, 33 people who joined through the program are working at the supervisor level or higher. Song Bo-gyeong, a partner hired through the 2019 linked recruitment, was appointed store manager of the Cheonan Shinbu store this year, becoming the first store manager to come from the program.
Kim Ji-young, head of Starbucks' ESG team, said, "We prepared this fair hoping that the experiences of current partners would help young people preparing for employment," and added, "We will continue a variety of programs so young people can explore career paths and build their job-seeking capabilities."
