Demirören Media Vocational and Technical Anatolia High School was established in cooperation between the Ministry of National Education and Demirören Media with the purpose of educating new generation journalists in order to make contributions to the Turkish and global media.

 

Addressing the opening ceremony of the school, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer said that they have taken an important step in cooperation with the Demirören Media Group regarding vocational education.

 

Özer stated that, "We no longer have the luxury to continue distance education. We have understood the importance of schools during the Covid-19 pandemic process. They are not only places where students get education but also schools are where they improve their psychological, social and emotional developments. It is not only a matter of learning loss. We consider face-to-face education as a "matter of social security." Till now, face-to-face education is continuing without a hitch. With the will of Allah, we will continue to keep schools open by following the mask, disinfectant, cleaning rules and hygiene as well as vaccination and PCR test applications."

 

Giving information about vaccination rate among teachers, Minister Özer said, "Our biggest advantage during this process is the high vaccination rate among teachers. As of today, the rate of teachers who got two doses of vaccination reached 85 percent and 5 percent of all of teaches are immune to the virus. Vaccination rate of our teachers is higher than many European countries including Finland and Sweden."

 

Within the framework of recent paradigm shift in vocational and technical education, there has been a transformation in the vocational education with the purpose of education quality of labor force required in the labor market, said Özer adding that the cooperation protocol signed with the Demirören Media Group will be an important step in this regard.

 

"Sector representatives become a part of the vocational education process; this is the most important transformation. We update curriculum in cooperation with the potential employers and we design skill training programs for students together.  We plan on the job training programs and workshop activities which are the most crucial parts for the quality of vocational education together. We give scholarships to successful students and most important of all, they have priority in getting employment. Moreover, experts of the sector give lectures at the schools," said Özer.

 

Expressing his happiness to see the employment rate of vocational education centers reached 88 percent, Özer stated Cooperation with the private sector started to yield results within a short period of time. Students who got highest scores in the central exams preferred to enroll in vocational high schools such as Teknopark İstanbul, software high school established in cooperation with İstanbul Chamber of Industry, Aselsan Vocational and Technical Anatolia High School in Ankara and  Aselsan Vocational and Technical Anatolia High School in Konya and İstanbul Technical University Vocational and Technical Anatolia High School. This revealed that academically successful students started to prefer vocational high schools, too."

 

Noting that the Ministry is working in an effort to increase production capacity of vocational schools, Özer said, "Income of vocational and technical Anatolia high schools was 217 million liras in 2018 and it reached 503 million in 2020. Our goal for 2021 is 1 billion lira income. Our purpose is to teach our students the skills required to work actively in the production and service sector."

 

Stressing that epic contribution of vocational education during the pandemic increased the production capacity of vocational schools, Özer went on to say that; "Vocational and Technical schools have produced much needed products varying from masks to disinfectant, from face guards to disposable overalls and aprons and from ventilators to mask machines. This revealed that vocational education does not only provide human resources for the labor market but it also produces most needed products for the society in case of extraordinary circumstances."

 

"We have used the increasing production capacity of vocational education for the increasing intellectual property rights capacity by adopting a paradigm shift," said Özer, "We have established 50 R&D centers in vocational education schools in order to reinforce our intellectual property rights activities," said.

 

Özer shared the following information: "Patent, useful model, brand, design registration and commercialization in other words, capacity to produce high value products... Number of registered products of vocational schools were 29 in the last decade and in 2020 we will have achieved a 60 fold increase in this field and registered 188 patents, useful models, brands and designs."

 

Stressing that the cooperation protocol means that vocational and technical education opens a new page in communications, Özer said, "We are establishing a new collaboration with Demirören Media Group in order to bring our students together with the expert teachers of the media sector. We will raise the quality of personnel who speak two foreign languages, capable of understanding and commenting on social, political and economic dynamics in the globalized world. This cooperation is the first of its kind in our country."

 

Meanwhile, Demirören Media Investments Trade Inc. Chief Executive Officer Yıldırım Demirören said during the ceremony that the school will start to give education in  September of 2022.

 

"Our school will provide students with training regarding their future profession while they are in high school. The first year of their education will be language training from foreign teachers in order to teach students to follow foreign sources and communicate with the entire world," stated Demirören.

 

Following the speeches Minister Özer and Yıldırım Demirören signed the cooperation protocol concerning the establishment of Demirören Media Vocational and Technical Anatolia High School.