All posts by : İNGEV

INGEV and Bahçeşehir University Center of Migration and Urban Studies cooperated in organizing “Syrian Participation in Turkey’s Higher Education Workshop”.

To develop suggestions about the Call Center’s scope of service, which will assist guidance support in order to encourage Syrian youngsters living in Turkey to participate in higher education “Syrian Participation in Turkey’s Higher Education Workshop” was organized at Bahçeşehir University. Ministry of National Education, Directorate General Of Migration Management, TÖMER, TÜRKMER, Ankara University, Bahçeşehir University, İstanbul Aydın University, various non-governmental organizations working on education of Syrian students across Turkey, and Syrian students were present at the Workshop in which current policies, implementations, and support mechanisms for Syrian participation in higher education and issues and needs relating to Syrian youngsters’ participation in higher education were brought up. Additionally, suggestions regarding the Call Center’s scope of service, which will be founded under the “Education is A Must Project” were discussed.

At the Workshop, where 30 people were present, general issues Syrian youngsters face in accessing higher education were defined as;

-not being able to get information about the universities and study majors that can be applied to, not knowing the sources of information about the process of applying to universities, higher education exam – YÖS, registration and enrollment to the university, undergraduate transfer, enrolling as a special student, procedures regarding the transfer from associate degree to bachelor’s degree, getting equivalence of high school diploma or certificate, scholarships and grants, process of application to these scholarship programmes, criteria for selecting the scholarship candidates, current Turkish language courses, and process of application to TOEFL.

On the other hand, it was suggested that the Call Center, which will perform as a support for Syrians to participate in higher education, should encourage guidance to Syrian students about university application procedures, issues regarding equivalence, scholarship and dormitory facilities, language courses, and TOEFL application process.

Antalya-Muratpaşa Municipality Workshop was held with great participation on 28 October 2017. In the workshop, the solutions for better human development were discussed exclusively for districts/municipalities according to İGE-İ (Human Development Index – Districts) project results.

After a general presentation about İNGEV, İGE-İ Project results about Muratpaşa were presented.  After the presentation, group table discussions were held in order to identify the actions special to district/municipality’s IGE-İ results. After the discussions the recommendations were gathered on “Idea Tray”. Binnur Çakır, İNGEV Counseling Committee Member and Prof. Dr. Murat Şeker made the presentations. And also the Mayor aal.             Ümit Uysal and Municipality Departments’ Heads and counselors participated to the workshop.

Besides all this, Muratpaşa Municipality was given “Social Inclusive” award which was defined according to İNGEV’s İGE-İ (Human Development Index – Districts) published in the beginning of 2017.

After the workshop, the ideas which were created as actionable recommendations will be grouped and reported under the topics “Embrace”, Put Forward” and “Develop-Preserve”.

One of the priority issues of the 2014-2023 which reveals the socio-economic development trends and potentials of Istanbul Area is the employment. And about this priority issue, İNGEV’s research called “Relation of Employment and Education in Istanbul” and İTÜ-Marmara Universities co-research “identification of the Employment Trends in Istanbul” which were both completed with the support of İSTKA (İstanbul Development Agency), were introduced in a meeting held in Istanbul Chamber of Industry.

The opening speeches of the meeting was made by Deputy General Secretary Haktan Akın and ISTKA General Secretary Özgül Özkan Yavuz. İSTKA Specialist Dr. Neşe Türkseven made a presentation about “2014 – 2023 Employment Strategies in Istanbul Region Plan”. Afterwards research reports were presented.

The results of the employment research conducted by İNGEV were presented by Renan Burduroğlu, Member of the Counseling Committee of İNGEV. Burduroğlu pointed out the importance of the women’s role in employment and said: “Women’s participation to the employment is very important. When education increases, the participation to the workforce also increases.”

Another employment research conducted by İTÜ and Marmara Universities were presented by Assoc Prof. Ilker Akgün from Marmara University, Business Administration Faculty and by Assoc. Prof. Aliye Ahu Akgün from İTÜ Architecture Faculty.

Employment Researches Introductory Meeting was ended with the Q&A session where project executives participated.

The first conference of ActHuman Social Inclusion Hub, which was carried out by the cooperation of INGEV and IPM and with the support of UNHCR and Syrian Economic forum, was held on 27 September 2017 in Salt Galata. Important repsentatives form public and private sectors, NGOs and academic world attended to this conference which was named as “To Improve the contribution of the companies, established by Syrians, to Employment and Economy”

This was the first time that Syrian entrepreneurs came together with the specialists of the public institutions and with the NGO managers.

The opening speeches were made by Vural Çakır, President of INGEV and by Prof. Dr. Fuat Keyman, Director of IPM. The conference was moderated by Berk Çoker, Director and Member of the Counseling Committee of INGEV. In the conference, Işık Oğuzertem, Country Director of Building Markets presented the results from the report called “Another Side to the Story”. A panel about the stories of the Syrian entrepreneurs was held where participants listened some success stories from Syrian entrepreneurs. And Ambassador Adnan Keçeci made a speech about the general condition of Syrians in Turkey. According to official records, the number of the companies (with the statue of foreign capital) established by Syrian refugees is around 8 thousand. But off the books it is estimated that this number surpasses 30 thousand.

The topic of how to support the entrepreneurship of Syrian refugees in order to increase the contribution of them to Turkish economy, employment and general integration was also discussed during the conference. As part of this discussion, Rami Sharrack, Director of Syrian Economic Forum, presented the Draft Policies Document which was prepared by Syrian Economic Forum, İPM and İNGEV. Incentives, tax and exemptions, working conditions, employment, business network, official framework and financial inclusion for Syrian entrepreneurs were all evaluated and discussed during this special session.

In the second part of the conference, two panels were held about Regulations and Business Related Comments within the scope of Draft Policies Document.

After the conference, The Draft Policies Document will be finalized and the final report will be shared with the people and organizations who work in this area.

The first conference of ActHuman Social Inclusion Initiative will be held on Wednesday, September 27 in Salt Galata.

Topic: THE ENHANCEMENT OF SYRIAN ENTERPRENEUERSHIP TO CONTRIBUTE

EMPLOYMENT AND INTEGRATION

• With ActHuman, we intend to develop social inclusion policies with research and then discuss it at an effective conference to conclude with a resolution paper which would become a strategic document that any decision maker would benefit from.
• The works are directed by a Steering Committee which includes representatives who are capable of analysing the work through every aspect.
• Steering Committee’s co-chairmen are the director of IPM Fuat Keyman and İNGEV President Vural Çakır.

Venue: Salt Galata / İstanbul

Date: 27 September 2017

Time: 13:00 – 17:00

For more info: berk.coker@ingev.org