The only way for Turkey’s younger generation to acquire the requisite skills in modern-day global communications and technology-based economies is through education and training. High-quality education, access and equality in education are the key issues in our education system. For Turkey to sustain its economic growth, increase prosperity, and provide its young population with the knowledge and requisite skills to become an information society, funds to education must increase even further and reforming the education system must be accelerated. Accordingly, the contributions from the private sector are needed at present.
Believing that the path leading Turkey towards the future is education and training, the Koç Group focuses a majority of the company’s social responsibility projects on education.
Our Group believes quality and equality in education is the fundamental right of all of our children as we carry out projects towards this goal. The Vehbi Koç Foundation and Group companies invest in education in various Turkish provinces, towns, and villages, supporting primary schools and high schools, awarding scholarships, and contributing to qualified projects.
Moreover, the Koç Group also helps promote our younger generation’s skills and competencies, who in turn become individuals beneficial to society and to themselves. The “Vocational Education: a Crucial Matter for the Nation” project, initiated by Koç Holding in 2006, with our Group companies, aims to advance the skills and competencies of our younger generation, especially in vocational-technical training programs to effect a qualitative increase in employment and to reach EU standards in technological developments, competitiveness, and entrepreneurship.
In fact, we have now successfully completed the second year of our educational project, the Vocational Education: a Crucial Matter for the Nation, sponsored by Koç University, the Vehbi Koç Foundation, and 21 Group companies, and are entering our third year with brand new initiatives. The feedback we have received tells us how significant our support to students in 81 provinces actually is in terms of continuing their education. We are anxiously awaiting to see these young individuals create added value as they complete their vocational-technical training.
With the support of the Vehbi Koç Foundation, some 8,000 vocational school students from 262 schools in 81 provinces have been provided with internship-aided scholarships along with mentoring and personal development opportunities.
With our sense of corporate citizenship and the projects we complete, we demonstrate the same assertiveness in social responsibility as we do in the business world. As the Koç Group, we continue to create added value in other social areas for both the world and Turkey.