Get a Fully Funded Trip to Seoul for a Youth Peace and Advocacy Workshop: UNESCO GCED Fellowship-Style Training 2026

This page is a historical reference. The 12th Youth Leadership Workshop on Global Citizenship Education (GCED) was held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from 8 to 12 June 2026. The official UNESCO MGIEP event page describes the programme, while the APCEIU-hosted GCED Clearinghouse reports that the workshop successfully concluded. The application window is closed, and the verified official pages do not announce a next edition. There is no current application to submit through this listing.

The workshop was organised by the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU) and the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), in partnership with the GCED Youth Network. Its 2026 theme was “Translating Peace into Action: Leveraging Media and the Arts for Youth Advocacy.” The central idea was practical: young people should be able to turn principles about peace, human rights, sustainability, and global citizenship into messages, creative work, and community action that other people can understand and join.

At a glance

The date in the deadline field is the real closing date for the 2026 application round, not a future deadline. It remains in the metadata because an archive entry should preserve the cycle’s actual application record. The historicalReference flag makes the status clear to the site and prevents this page from presenting a finished programme as an open opportunity.

What the workshop was designed to do

The official programme connected GCED with Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Media and Information Literacy (MIL), and creative advocacy. Participants were asked to think about how young people respond to conflict, inequality, polarisation, climate pressure, misinformation, and other issues that affect both local communities and international cooperation. The emphasis was not simply on knowing the language of peace. It was on developing the judgment, empathy, critical thinking, and communication skills needed to act responsibly.

The workshop also used the 2023 UNESCO Recommendation on Education for Peace and Human Rights, International Understanding, Cooperation, Fundamental Freedoms, Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development as an important reference point. Participants considered that recommendation from a youth perspective and explored how its principles might become useful in their own settings. That made the programme relevant to youth organisers, educators, media makers, artists, advocates, and community leaders who already work with people rather than only discussing change in the abstract.

The official follow-up report describes a keynote on whether youth can build peace, discussion of the 2023 recommendation, and a Young Peacemakers Advocacy Gallery where participants shared their existing GCED and peacebuilding initiatives. Group Labs then gave participants time to form teams, select shared interests, and design peace advocacy campaigns. Film, visual arts, theatre, and digital campaigns were among the forms used in that work.

Who was eligible for the 2026 cycle

The original call was aimed at 40 young leaders from Official Development Assistance (ODA) recipient countries. The eligibility requirements were specific and cumulative:

• Applicants had to be born between 1998 and 2007.
• They needed fluent spoken and written English because the workshop used English for discussion, group work, and materials.
• They needed at least two years of active experience in youth activities. This could include youth organising, education, community work, civic engagement, advocacy, media, arts, or related leadership work, provided the applicant could explain their actual role and contribution.
• They needed the commitment and capacity to implement a GCED training programme within three months after the main workshop.
• They needed to be from an ODA recipient country, using the relevant development-assistance list to check that requirement.
• They needed to complete the designated prerequisite online course on the GCED Online Campus.

These requirements described the 2026 selection round and should not be treated as standing eligibility rules for an unannounced future workshop. If APCEIU and UNESCO MGIEP announce another edition, applicants should read the new call rather than assume that the birth-year range, experience threshold, course, or implementation requirement will stay the same.

The implementation condition was particularly important. The organisers were looking for people who could take what they learned back to a real group, school, organisation, media project, or community setting. An applicant did not need to promise a national campaign. A credible plan might have involved a short GCED training series for peer educators, a media-literacy workshop for a youth club, a theatre or storytelling project about peaceful coexistence, or a community dialogue supported by a local organisation. The standard was feasibility: a defined audience, a realistic venue or partner, and a clear reason the applicant could deliver the work within three months.

What was funded, and what was not

For selected participants in the completed 2026 cycle, the workshop funding covered the main costs of participation: accommodation, meals, local transportation, and round-trip international airfare to and from Seoul. This is why the opportunity was described as fully funded. It does not mean that applicants received unrestricted money, a salary, or a guaranteed personal stipend. The verified public information does not state a cash amount for attending the workshop.

The later support described by APCEIU is separate from the travel package. After the workshop, ten participants were to be selected for the Mentorship & Grant Programme. Those participants would work with expert mentors for four weeks to strengthen project proposals and then receive a grant to implement their initiatives over a three-month period. The public follow-up report does not state the grant amount. It should therefore not be represented as a fixed scholarship value or as a benefit guaranteed to everyone who attended.

What happened during the programme

The completed workshop included sessions on conflict and peace, SEL, MIL, artificial intelligence ethics, and creative approaches to peacebuilding. Participants examined misinformation and hate speech, reflected on empathy and intercultural understanding, and discussed how technology can support advocacy without weakening human dignity or respect for difference.

The arts were used as working methods rather than decorative extras. In visual-arts activities, participants explored how images can make an issue visible and invite people to care. Theatre activities gave them ways to examine power, conflict, and possible responses from more than one point of view. Storytelling sessions focused on how narratives can build empathy and encourage action. The Group Labs brought these ideas together by asking participants to produce advocacy campaigns using media and artistic forms suited to their goals.

The programme also connected international learning with local context. Participants visited the War and Women’s Human Rights Museum and considered how exhibitions, testimony, and artistic expression can preserve memory, teach history, and support work for peace and human rights. They heard from youth-led peacebuilding initiatives, including a community-based GCED initiative from Tanzania, and from a programme designer working with local community initiatives in Korea.

On the final day, participants developed individual Action Plans for work in their own communities and exchanged feedback on how their media- and arts-based advocacy ideas could become sustained projects. That follow-through is the most useful part of the opportunity to preserve: the workshop was not only an international gathering, but also a structured exercise in moving from analysis to an achievable local plan.

How applications worked for the closed cycle

Applications for the 2026 round were submitted through the official online form linked from the original opportunity materials. Applicants had to complete the personal-information and motivation sections, then upload the required documents directly in the form:

1. A Curriculum Vitae or resume.
2. A one-minute self-introduction video.
3. The certificate for the designated prerequisite course on the GCED Online Campus.

The form had to be submitted by 26 March 2026 in Korea Standard Time. The form is no longer an active route into the programme, and this page should not instruct readers to prepare or submit a new application for the completed cycle. The official MGIEP event page is retained as the primary reference because it records the programme’s purpose, organisers, theme, and dates.

For archival readers reviewing what a strong application would have needed, the useful thread was evidence of action. A CV should have shown sustained youth work with dates, responsibilities, and results. A motivation response should have connected the applicant’s experience to media, arts, GCED, peacebuilding, or related advocacy. The implementation plan should have identified who would be trained, where the activity could happen, which partners were available, and how the applicant would know whether the activity helped. The video should have communicated the applicant’s own voice clearly within one minute rather than repeating general praise for UNESCO.

What readers should take from this archive entry

This workshop is a useful reference for people designing future youth-leadership opportunities around peace education. Its model combined an international residential workshop, practical creative work, peer exchange, action planning, and selective follow-up support. It also treated media literacy and AI ethics as part of peace advocacy, recognising that young leaders now work in information environments where a message can educate, mislead, unite, or inflame very quickly.

The opportunity should not be confused with a general UNESCO scholarship. It was a specific 2026 workshop with a defined application window, a defined participant profile, and a defined Seoul programme. It also was not a grant competition in which every applicant received project money. Travel and participation costs were covered for selected participants, while the later grant process was limited to ten people and had no publicly stated amount in the official follow-up report.

No next cycle has been announced on the official pages checked for this update. Readers interested in a future edition should monitor UNESCO MGIEP, APCEIU, and the GCED Youth Network for a new call. They should wait for that call to confirm the dates, eligibility rules, funding, prerequisite course, documents, and application link. Until then, the accurate status of this listing is completed and historical.

Frequently asked questions

Can I still apply through this page?

No. The 2026 application deadline passed, and the workshop itself concluded in June 2026. The page is retained as an archive entry, not as an open call.

Was the workshop fully funded?

Selected participants had accommodation, meals, local transportation, and round-trip international airfare to and from Seoul covered. No general cash amount for workshop attendance was published.

Did every participant receive a grant?

No. APCEIU announced a separate follow-up Mentorship & Grant Programme for which ten participants would be selected. The grant amount was not stated in the public report.

What was the age range?

For the 2026 call, applicants had to be born between 1998 and 2007. A future edition may use different rules.

What was the official application deadline?

The 2026 deadline was 26 March 2026, Korea Standard Time. That date is kept in the metadata as the closed cycle’s real deadline.

Where can I read the official programme information?

The verified official reference is the UNESCO MGIEP page for the 12th Youth Leadership Workshop on GCED. It should be used for the programme description and historical dates. A future application should only be made through a newly announced official call.