High schoolers win trade award with Korea-themed tea set
Minister for Trade Ahn Duk-geun, center, poses with students from Kyungbok Business High School and their teachers who won a mock-up trade contest hosted by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, at KOTRA's international convention and exhibition center in southern Seoul, Saturday. Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy
A contest-winning tea set designed by students from Kyungbok Business High School / Courtesy of KOTRA
A group of high school students won a mock-up trade contest by pitching tea sets designed with traditional Korean imagery to 10 different countries, according to the country's trade ministry that hosted the contest, Sunday.
Six female students from Kyungbok Business High School in southwestern Seoul used sets of white tea cups and saucers featuring a design based on the Hunminjeongeum, a document describing Korea's early written language, to make them attractive to as many countries as possible for the contest.
The students first sent samples to 10 overseas branches of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) to receive their feedback on the product. The samples were sent to Mongolia, China, Japan and other countries where the agency's international offices are located including the regions of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Southeast and Southwest Asia, the Americas, Africa and the Middle East.
Based on the feedback, the students made a presentation at KOTRA's international convention and exhibition center in southern Seoul last Saturday along with nine other teams who were all high school students from across the nation. Minister for Trade Ahn Duk-geun watched the presentations alongside KOTRA officials as well as teachers and students from the participating schools.
Kim Ye-jin from KOTRA Academy who emceed the event said the students came up with three selling points.
"They took advantage of the fact that there are many countries with tea-drinking culture so the tea sets could promote to them Korea's unique cultural elements," Kim said. "They said their tea sets can be also used for coffee so the products can be used in almost all countries. They also said that by featuring the Hunminjeongeum, the tea sets can promote the Korean language to tea or coffee consumers around the world."
The winning team received an honor from Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Bang Moon-kyu and prize money.
Ahn said the contest, meeting its third edition this year, has been helping participating students with employment. "Some 80 percent of the participating students from 2022 found jobs," Ahn said.
The contest was designed to support employment of students from vocational and other schools oriented to teaching special skills for practical use in the international trading environment, according to the ministry.