TİKA Education Programs Reach Thousands

The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) continues to support the human resources of friend and brother countries.

Placing great emphasis on education ever since it was founded and working towards improving the human resources capacity of all industries, TİKA started to develop special programs on education with its Coordinatorship of Education Projects that was established in 2017.  Trainings on healthcare with Mother and Child Health Support Program (AÇSAP) and Emergency Medicine Capacity Improvement Program (ATKAP), trainings on media with Correspondent Training Program (MEP) and Media Technologies Training Program (METEP) and trainings on informatics, machinery and metal processing with Vocational Training and Employment Program (MESİP) were organized. In public services, thousands of people including judges, prosecutors, diplomats, teachers and municipal workers acquired new information and skills with Judicial Services Training Program (AHEP), Diplomat Training Program (DEP), Urban Development Support Program (KEGEP) and Capacity Improvement Program in Education (EÖP). It was reported that Coordinatorship of Education Projects trained over 4500 people in 2017 and 70% of the trainings were on-site trainings. Up to 900 healthcare personnel has received "newborn resuscitation training”. Education projects, which serve 44 countries in total, mostly focus on Central Asia in countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Mongolia, while in the Balkans, the biggest beneficiary is Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Education programs such as AÇSAP, MEP, KEGEP that are being developed by TİKA also contain other project modules that complement the trainings. As part of the mother-child health trainings, various medical supplies are donated allowing the trainees to use the techniques they learn.  During vocational trainings, training centers or trainees are also granted the equipment they require as part of their work. In some cases, the capacity built at the beneficiary country also includes a corporate structuring in the form of establishment of a new system. Complementary activities include printing of informative materials such as posters and brochures in countries that lack a newborn hearing screening system to establish this system or organizing informative seminars to encourage mother’s milk.

Unlike other TİKA projects that depend on the demand, education projects are based on the principle of offering the programs prepared by TİKA to the beneficiaries. The programs are prepared by taking the common needs into account upon observations carried out in many countries, and they are structured in a modular way that allows flexible implementation based on the preferences of the related countries. Programs, which are prepared in light of the recent developments, vary between 3-day long trainings and 10-week long courses, and they cover a wide selection of areas that include the healthcare, media, informatics, economic and administrative topics and education in general terms. Some trainings improve the capacity of the workers while others help trainees find a job or start their own business. According to the observations, some participants state that they have “found a job even before the trainings were over” and some local trainer candidates say, “Just the way the instructors from Turkey lecture is impressive in its own right”.

Education projects, which are classified under 25 different programs, are expected to improve and continue their growth in 2018 as well.