The "Sector on Campus" programme promotion ceremony was held at the Presidential Complex National Library, hosted by the Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank and with the participation of relevant sector stakeholders. Within the scope of the project, in which Atatürk University is one of the 20 stakeholder universities, Rector Prof. Dr. Ömer Çomaklı attended the signing ceremony.

Zekeriya Coştu, General Director of National Technology of the Ministry of Industry and Technology, who made the opening speech of the programme, said, "We will achieve the national-scale impact we have achieved with Teknofest with this programme," regarding the "Sector on Campus" programme, which will bring universities and the private sector together and enable students to gain important gains on the way to the National Technology Move.

20 Universities Became Stakeholders with 20 Institutions

Zekeriya Coştu pointed out that students will become more competent in the relevant technology fields and more ready to produce value, and said "We started our programme as of this spring semester with the contributions of 20 universities and 20 institutional stakeholders. We have prepared 36 courses in the first stage to meet with our young people through the new platform of our Ministry, the National Technology Academy. Our stakeholder companies and institutions undertake voluntary duties in the preparation of the course curriculum and content, in the delivery of the courses and in establishing quality communication with the students. Our universities also take the necessary initiatives for students to benefit from these opportunities. It gives us a special excitement in terms of the dimension we aim for the programme to reach. We will achieve the national scale impact we achieved with Teknofest with this programme. We wish to turn our programme into a great mobilisation with the participation of many more companies and universities, and to strengthen the ties of tens of thousands of students with the national technology move in every academic year."

Minister Varank: "Trainings will be provided in the business world"

Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank started his speech by stating that he believes that the programme will bring together the developments in the technology ecosystem with students and will significantly increase the capacity of trained human resources in the future, reminding that they have established a National Technology Academy to train the human resources that will carry Turkey to the targets of the National Technology Move, and stated that they organise open courses, competitions, publications and programmes under the roof of the academy, which is a digital learning platform.

Noting that the "Sector on Campus" programme has also started to serve under this roof, Varank said: "With the programme, which includes education intertwined with the business world, private sector companies open credit courses at universities. Thanks to these 14-week courses, the knowledge and experience in the business world is delivered to our students by professionals working in the private sector. In the autumn semester of 2022, we carried out the first application of this innovative education model in cooperation with Kariyer.net company and Ankara University, Turkcell and Cezeri companies and Atatürk University. 'Big Data Analytics', 'Introduction to Artificial Intelligence' and 'Computer Networks' courses given by the best professionals in their field were successfully completed. Both our students and companies were very satisfied with this work. In the spring semester of 2023, we started new trainings in cooperation with 20 stakeholder universities and 20 stakeholder companies. When you look at the courses given, believe me, there is no title that you can say 'they forgot this'. Our students receive the most up-to-date training on 36 different topics ranging from systems engineering to cyber security, from blockchain to quantum computing, from Java to applied natural language processing. The 1500 students we have reached so far will also have internship opportunities after the trainings. Afterwards, both we and our stakeholder institutions will be in charge of the employment of these students."

Rector Çomaklı: "Our students will be a part of this ecosystem"

Ataturk University Rector Prof. Dr. Ömer Çomaklı, who signed a cooperation protocol with Türksat, one of the leading institutions of our country, thanked everyone who contributed to the implementation of this study, which was implemented by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and will lead students to closely follow technological developments and see themselves as a part of this ecosystem.

He stated that Atatürk University has made important breakthroughs in recent years with the New Generation University Design and Transformation Project, and that steps have been taken to have a say especially in the fields of artificial intelligence, digital transformation and big data, which is possible with the devoted work of all Atatürk University members, and wished the protocol to be beneficial to our country.

Which Institutions took part in the Signing Ceremony?

After the speeches, the signing ceremony was held with the representatives of 20 stakeholder companies and 20 stakeholder universities that contributed to the "Sector on Campus" programme.


Programme partner universities and companies were listed as follows:

"Atatürk University, Karadeniz Technical University, Middle East Technical University, Istanbul Technical University, Hitit University, Ankara University, Gazi University, Sakarya University, Erciyes University, Çukurova University, Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, Samsun Ondokuz Mayıs University, Pamukkale University, Gebze Technical University, Kocaeli University, Dicle University, Dokuz Eylül University, İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, Koç University, Sabancı University.

Kariyer.Net, OBSS Technology, Ziraat Technology, Cezeri, Turkcell, Yongatek, Ulak Communication, ASELSAN, TAI, Barikat, Profelis, TÜBİTAK (MAM, Bilgem, Butal, UME, Space, ULAKBIM), TSE, Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, STM, Aspilsan, Türksat, Arçelik, SAS, BAYKAR."

The ceremony ended after the Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, programme stakeholder university rectors and company representatives took a photo.

CORPORATE COMMUNICATION DIRECTORATE - 10.04.2023