Starbucks Coffee Korea is accepting applications for the second round of its program to support people in their 40s or older who are looking for opportunities to reopen their stores.

Starbucks Coffee Korea‘s support program is a joint project with the Ministry of Startups and SMEs and the Small Enterprise And Market Service, dedicated to supporting troubled small business owners who have recently closed their businesses.

Applicants accepted to the program will go through 16 hours of both theoretic and field trainings. Mentors will offer participants lessons on the basics of running small coffee shops, including quality control, sanitary control and customer service, as well as how to manage profit and loss. The participants would be able to seek advice from their mentors on operating their businesses even after the program is over.

Those who excel in Starbucks Korea’s program could also get opportunities to get hired as baristas at Starbucks, the company added.

The company will improve its support program to help the middle-aged entrepreneurs successfully restart their businesses, said Song Ho-seop Song, chief executive officer at Starbucks Coffee Korea.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)