In 2012, we enrolled 99 servicemen into the
service, to work in a variety of fields such as agronomy
and horticulture, aquaculture, animal husbandry and
veterinary services, agricultural machinery, agribusiness
management and marketing, food processing, economics
and trade, ICT, irrigation engineering, Spanish, French,
plant protection, pest control, tourism and public health
and medicine. This was the 12th group of servicemen to
be dispatched since 2001. They were posted overseas
to work on projects at technical and medical missions in
October.
Following a shortening of the term of compulsory
military service to one year and 15 days, since 2010 we
have also shortened servicemen’s training to six weeks.
This effectively extends the period that they actually
spend overseas. Since servicemen are recruited for their
professional skills, training focuses instead on language
skills, as well as general subjects that build knowledge
of international technical cooperation. Training is meant
to develop servicemen’s ability to adapt to group life and
help them assimilate into their new teams at overseas
missions in the shortest time possible.
Members of the 12th group from the Taiwan Youth
Overseas Service celebrate during the graduation
ceremony following their initial period of training and
orientation. With the dispatch of the 12th group, almost
1,000 servicemen have now served overseas, contributing
their expertise to partner countries and forming a reserve
of talent that can be deployed in the service of diplomacy
and foreign aid.
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