The exemplary project brought smiles to the students' faces. OSTİM Business and Construction Machinery Cluster (İŞİM), within the framework of its university-industry collaboration program, contributes to the employment of young people graduating from university. Companies that graduate students offer them job opportunities.
İŞİM, through student projects conducted with Çankaya University's International Trade Department, supports OSTİM companies in their export market research while also creating employment opportunities for students.
In this project, coordinated by the cluster, students work full-time one day a week in the foreign trade departments of companies, acting as staff members to find new export markets for the firms. In the project, which involved 15 companies that are members of İŞİM (Turkish Exporters Association), 18 students from Çankaya University were involved in an intense process for 4 months. Students learned about the companies' products in detail and gained firsthand experience in the real sector, foreign trade, and the development of international relations.
At the end of the term, students presented their successful projects in a program that also included the participating companies, received their certificates, and completed their projects. The presentations, which took place at the OSTİM Organized Industrial Zone Directorate, were listened to by OSTİM Board Chairman Orhan Aydın, Çankaya University International Trade Department Head Prof. Dr. Mahir Nakip, Lecturer Fedai Uzun, and representatives from the companies where the internships were completed.
At the end of the project, 3 students received job offers from the companies they worked for. The students will start working at the companies they graduated from.
More than 30 students have started working.
Student projects at Çankaya University, which began with the Engineering Department in 2007, continue with the International Trade Department. Over 200 student projects have been completed in total over the past nine years. These projects address specific needs of companies and develop solutions. While providing solutions to companies' problems, the projects also allow students to gain practical experience in the field before graduation.
The program, which is also noteworthy for its employment potential, has provided employment opportunities to over 30 recent graduates in companies that are members of İŞİM (Turkish Employment and Training Center). In this way, companies have been able to bring the skilled young talent they were looking for into their organizations.
“It trains high-quality human resources”
Fedai Uzun, Lecturer and Student Projects Coordinator at Çankaya University's International Trade Department, stated that the projects, which have also been transferred to the university's project bank, are a positive example of university-industry collaboration.
Uzun, noting that student projects also serve as a source for scientific research, said: “In addition, the employment of students who complete internships in companies provides great benefits for both universities and companies in terms of training quality human resources and utilizing skilled labor. The fact that at least 4 students are employed in the companies where they interned each year is one of the greatest successes of this project. We would like to thank Mr. Orhan Aydın and the valuable professors of Çankaya University, who made significant contributions to the presentations, as well as the member companies of İŞİM that provided internship opportunities to the students, and we hope to meet again in the 2017 internships and presentations.”
My Job in Brief
OSTİM's first cluster was established in 2007 under a protocol signed between Çankaya University and the OSTİM Organized Industrial Zone, following a Sectoral Competitiveness Analysis study. The cluster operates with the mission of enabling the sector and its member firms to become more competitive in the future through joint lobbying, promotion, training, consultancy, projects, procurement, and marketing. The cluster's 137 firms produce light construction machinery, construction machinery spare parts, special purpose construction machinery, mining machinery and spare parts, concrete batching plants, crushing and screening plants, asphalt plants, vehicle-mounted equipment, and conveyor systems.
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