Trakya Universities Union member University rectors came together within the scope of the Trakya Career Fair activities and talked about the works of universities. The Trakya Career Fair, organized under the coordination of the Presidency Human Resources Office, sponsored by Edirne Governorship, Edirne Municipality, Trakya Development Agency, Trakya Birlik, Aselsan and Kale Group and Tekirdağ Namık Kemal, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart, Kırklareli, Bandırma Onyedi Eylül and Trakya Universities, came together in the panel titled “The Role of Universities in Employment”.
In the host of Trakya University, a panel was held. Prof. Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu was the moderator of panel, where Rector of Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Prof. Dr. Mümin Şahin, Rector of Kırklareli University Prof. Dr. Bülent Şengörür, Rector of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Prof. Dr. Sedat Murat and Rector of Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University Prof. Dr. Süleyman Özdemir participated as speakers.
Prof. Dr. Süleyman Özdemir: “Our Development Will Increase in 15 Years”
Speaking at the panel, Rector of Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University Prof. Dr. Süleyman Özdemir, stated that Trakya University Union is the most active one in the field of higher education in Turkey and expressed the happiness of hosting Trakya Career Fair as union. Prof. Dr. Süleyman Özdemir also stated that “As a university, we want to be successful in education, research and development. When we say education, employment comes also into this field. The biggest task of universities is to train well-equipped individuals needed by job markets. In addition to this task of universities, our students must work hard and do their best. We all need to strive to increase our students' employability. Turkey is a country developing and growing very fast. Higher education is developing in this direction. We are talking about a higher education system with 207 universities and 8 million students. We are one of the leading countries in the world at the rate of universities. Of course, quality also comes to the fore here. As Bandırma Onyedi Eylül University, we attach importance to applied trainings to improve our quality. Taking the Trakya University as an example, we also passed 3 + 1 Workplace Practice Training. We opened a vocational college in Bandırma Organized Industrial Zone. In this way, we meet the needs of the industrialist in terms of both employment and technical knowledge. We are also trying to integrate our graduate students with our industry. I believe that the importance given to education with all these steps is closely related to development. I believe that our development will increase even more in 15 years.”
Prof. Dr. Sedat Murat: “Universities create scientific infrastructure that will organize and orient employment while raising manpower to markets”
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University Rector Prof.Dr. Sedat Murat, expressed that business, employment and career-oriented work recently began to take place in universities, and that Turkey has a young population, the training and employment problems of this population may be brought. At this point, he also said that the state has a duty to produce macro policies and that the quality problem in universities is related to the quality problems in primary and secondary education institutions. Prof. Dr. Sedat Murat also stated that “Education that starts in the womb is a serious phenomenon. Of course, we will evaluate this in terms of universities. As universities raise manpower for the markets, they also create a scientific infrastructure that will open new horizons to organize and direct employment. The task of universities is not only to train manpower but it also in universities grow generations that will steer the society. Universities have been making serious progress in these issues in recent years. These developments are provided by the Higher Education and Entrepreneurship studies of Council of Higher Education (YÖK). Ten years ago, students interpose against us in the economics faculties of universities because they did not want capital. We had academics who did not want entrepreneurship. Today, our universities show breakthroughs in entrepreneurship and innovation.
Prof. Dr. Bülent Şengörür: “We bring internship and job opportunities together with our students with university-industry collaboration”
Pointing out that education is the most important pillar in order to contribute to employment and the infrastructure of education should be established, Rector of Kırklareli University Prof. Dr. Bülent Şengörür stated that they provided various trainings to academicians in this direction. He also stated that “So far, we have provided trainings to our 100 academicians. We conduct student surveys, employee surveys and evaluate ourselves based on the results from here. We configure the education and training programs of our application-oriented departments. We have established 27 laboratories for these purposes. We have strategically trained in certain areas. We established our Career Center to facilitate our students' employment. Under the Career Center, we have provided nearly 280 free training and focused on technical trips. Since 2017, we have been making an employment fair specifically for our institution. 41 institutions participated in the fair we held in 2019. We want to make progress towards entrepreneurship and innovation with all these works. We bring together internship and job opportunities with our students through university-industry cooperation.
Prof. Dr. Mümin Şahin: "The kilogram price used for a car is 40, for the tablet price used for a tablet is 1000, and for the Biotechnological Drugs used for Cancer Treatment is 27 Billion Dollars"
Stating that the power of societies is measured by educated individuals, Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University Rector Prof. Dr. Mümin Şahin stated that universities have a responsibility to train the workforce needed by industry and economy. Prof. Dr. Mümin Şahin also stated that “The main task of universities is to train qualified individuals needed by the society and to produce scientific outputs. For example, if we talk about high value-added products, the kilogram price used for a car is 40, for the tablet price used for a tablet is 1000, and for the Biotechnological Drugs used for Cancer Treatment is 27 Billion Dollars. At this point today, universities are important. As Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, we also switched to 3 + 1 and 7 + 1 workplace application training system. We signed a protocol with about 50 companies in this regard. We aim to contribute to the labor force needed by the industry. We have created a union that produces domestic and national production called Trakya Tohum A.Ş. We also have a laboratory named BIOTEK, where our goal is to produce 1 million flowers and plants per year.
Prof. Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu: As Trakya University, we are the biggest employer of Edirne.
Trakya University Rector Prof. Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu stated that with the graduate education, the information was deepened and they taught young people as professionals after their university education. Prof. Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu also stated that “Universities provide great employment opportunities in addition to training people. Today, as Trakya University, we are a family of 4,200 people. We are the biggest employer of Edirne. When you consider the total number of universities in the Trakya region, you see that this is a huge power. We also provide services in many fields such as hospital, tourism, agriculture, laboratory. Raising qualified people is the most important task of universities. We also try to provide students with the practice in the field of application. After the theoretical knowledge in the field of medicine, we take students to the hospital, so that they have the experience to practice after exiting. But can we put the same application into our university in engineering or social sciences? Here is 3 + 1 and 7 + 1, which is very important. 52% of the students who started to practice in this model from the Technical Sciences Vocational School last year received job offers from places where they had internship. Thus, these children gain work experience while studying.
It is impossible to leave the door of Trakya University without generating a solution for your needs.
Rector of Trakya University, who emphasized that universities give education and development opportunities to industry and students Prof. Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu stated that “How does Trakya University offer this opportunity? We have a Technology Transfer Center. When anyone says, "I want to write a project, I cannot do it, how do I do it?" we provide a project writing service. In our Technopark, there are currently about 50 active companies. At the same time, we have TimTEB Entrepreneur House there, when they say 'I have an idea' or 'I want to have an idea, what should I do?', They can get training from the groups there and improve themselves. We have a Continuous Education Center, students or citizens can come here and get the education they want. You know, in many of our departments, entrepreneurship trainings are included in our curriculum for 32 hours and our students receive an entrepreneurship certificate as well as their diplomas. We have nearly 100 student groups within the Health, Culture and Sports Department. Our Career Center is ready for your self-development. To put it briefly, it is impossible to leave the door of Trakya University without producing solutions for your needs.
We want students who have imagined where they want to go instead of a student model in classical understanding.
Rector of Trakya University who stated that the student model in classical understanding is not accepted anymore Prof.Dr. Erhan Tabakoğlu also stated “We no longer want students who sit in high school and listen to the lesson and pass the lessons with copies in the exams. We have now dreamed where he wants to go and want the student to progress to that goal by adding a lot of equipment to it. We have all kinds of possibilities at our University, if not we will provide them. I think that our country will show great development in the very near future. Because you exist, you are our values… Here, 295 companies came to you. You can give your individual CVs and participate in interviews. A very good movie is made here and you will either be the only audience of this movie or you will be character actors. I know very well that you all have the potential to be very successful character actors.
