Areum Jang

1. What kind of work are you currently doing in Jordan?

UNICEF Jordan Country Office has built a long-standing partnership with the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) since 2012 to provide children and youth living in Jordan with education, WASH services, social protection, and employability training. To support the successful implementation of ROK’s KOICA-funded project which involves multiple sections and cross-sectoral efforts, I assist in integrated programme coordination within sections, liaising with UNICEF Seoul Liaison Office (PPD Seoul) and KOICA Jordan country office’s monitoring and evaluation, and donor reporting and resource mobilization departments.

2. Tell us about your career so far and what made you decide to pursue a career in international development cooperation?

I was a homeroom teacher at a public primary school in Ilsan, Korea after graduating University of Education with a teaching certificate. During my bachelor’s, I was weaving a little bit of different school years by taking a year off to study in London, off to Colorado, USA to practice student teaching, and volunteering to teach out-of-school children in the suburbs of Hanoi and Burkina Faso. Such activities were not typically pursued by my Korean peers since they seemed to be irrelevant when having passed a competitive teacher qualification exam as quickly as they graduated. Nonetheless, these paved the way for me to pursue a master’s in international cooperation in education and training in French instructional language in Paris and led me to build my career path in international development cooperation.

3. Do you have any advice or message for students or professionals who want to work at UNICEF?

Nowadays, you often can find good entry opportunities to work with UNICEF through diverse programmes supported by different government ministries or KOICA. It helps you to try working in the humanitarian aid and development sector to see whether it fits your professional development goals and meets your expectations. Keep your eyes open for up-to-date announcements on the recruitment pages of the MOFA and KOICA websites and give it a try!

4. What is your advice for teachers wanting to pursue a career in international development cooperation?

In the past, most of the students I met while teaching at a primary school in Korea, chose the field of civil service and teaching as their future career regardless of their talent and skill sets. However, I would like to strongly suggest students opt to enter a university or college of education to broaden their scope and look out for opportunities at a global level. Your theoretical expertise and hands-on teaching experience in Korea can be invaluable and appreciated in the international educational development sector and I hope to meet more Korean colleagues who used to be teachers in this field. 

I started my career with UNICEF in 2021 as a United Nations Volunteer (UNV) to support the management of the Agora learning portfolio on education in emergencies at headquarters. Since 2023, I have been supporting the partnerships team mainly for the KOICA-funded project. Previously, I was an international consultant and junior technical officer with the UNESCO Beirut Regional Office for Education and Multilateral Cooperation Department and the Public Sector team at ILO headquarters. Before entering the UN system, I was an e-learning course developer at a private language learning institute in Paris, France, and a homeroom teacher at a public primary school in Ilsan, Korea.