ESBAŞ carries out studies in cooperation with Bergama Municipality, Bergama Chamber of Commerce and Bergama District Directorate of National Education on what should be done to provide graduates from vocational and technical high schools with the skills needed by the industry. ESBAŞ CEO Dr. Faruk Güler, ESBAŞ CEO Advisor Mehmet Pulak, and Corporate Communications Director Halime Büyükyüksel, who visited the vocational and technical high schools in Bergama the previous day, attended the meeting held at the Bergama Chamber of Commerce on vocational training in the district.

We are ready for cooperation

Bergama Mayor Hakan Koştu, Bergama Chamber of Commerce President Fikret Ürper, Bergama District Director of National Education Nuri Kiraz and Dokuz Eylül University Bergama Vocational School administrators, National Education directors from Bergama, Kınık and Dikili, principals of vocational and technical high schools, teachers, headmen and members took part in the meeting. Speaking at the meeting, ESBAS Executive Board Chairman Dr. Faruk Güler emphasized that they are carrying out good projects with many schools in Izmir on education, and that they want to evaluate their experiences in the region, especially in Bergama, Dikili and Kınık. Noting that the Aegean Free Zone, where 20,500 people are directly employed, provides a livelihood for 100 thousand people with the job and service capacity it provides outside the region, Dr. Güler said, “We worked for 3 years to determine the location of the new free zone. There is no better place than Bergama. It is not far from Izmir anymore; the highway has solved that problem. The need for trained qualified personnel will emerge more. Our schools and educators should work for this. We are ready to share our 30 years of experience and cooperate.”

Bad Fortune Is Changing

Mayor of Bergama, Hakan Koştu, stated that with the strengthening of port, highway and railway connections, a period in which the North Aegean region is sailing for economic developments, emphasized that the Western Anatolia Free Zone would accelerate the development of the region. Koştu said, “The bad luck of Bergama is now changing. Our duty should be to take steps to meet the need for qualified personnel today.” Bergama Chamber of Commerce President Fikret Ürper, on the other hand, drew attention to the fact that the main problem in the North Aegean is the qualification of the unskilled workforce, and said, “3 thousand 200 people applied to the employer-worker meeting organization we held in Bergama in the past months. The companies interviewed 231 applicants, but only 37 of them were qualified and placed in a job. The need for trained qualified personnel can be clearly seen from these figures. We can also prevent unemployment by making our unskilled workforce qualified.”