UNIVERSITY ENTREPRENEURS GOT CERTIFIED
The university students graduated from the Entrepreneurship Training Program they received within KOSGEB (Small & Medium Enterprises Development Organization) in order to be able to establish their own businesses. 60 students have received their certificates at the Certificate Ceremony for KOSGEB 2013 – 2014 Academic Year Applied Entrepreneurship Training Program for Universities hosted by Izmir University of Economics.
Mustafa Çanakçı, Director of KOSGEB Izmir South Service Centre, Prof. Dr. Tunçdan Baltacıoğlu, Rector of Izmir University of Economics, Prof. Dr. Recep Yaparel, Vice Rector of Dokuz Eylül University (DEU), and Prof. Dr. Semih Ötleş, Vice Rector of Ege University (EU) also attended the ceremony besides the students who qualified to receive their certificates.
Mustafa Çanakçı, who addressed the audience at the ceremony, stated that the students received a training of 70 hours, and that the certificates presented worth a 100 thousand Lira check towards establishing their enterprises. Çanakçı stated the following:
“Based on a study conducted by Turkish Statistical Institute in 2012, there is a 9.2% of unemployment rate. In Izmir this is about 14.7%. Among the 81 cities, Izmir has the highest unemployment rate. It is very significant to decrease the unemployment rate and create employment at the same time. We’ve conducted 24 training programs with Ege, Dokuz Eylül, and Izmir University of Economics so far in the region. 439 people graduated from these programs. Currently, we have 31 young entrepreneurs who established their own businesses. This year 27 students from Dokuz Eylül, 25 from Ege, and 20 students from Izmir University of Economics have completed entrepreneurship training.”
Rector Prof. Dr. Tunçdan Baltacıoğlu pointed out that Izmir might be training many more entrepreneurs and said, “With its climate, sunny weather, and structure, Izmir inspires people to dream big. The fact that there are only 60 students out of a total of 120 thousand students from three universities completing the program is not a sufficient number. We, the university managers, need to work harder to achieve more number of entrepreneur students.”
As Prof. Dr. Recep Yaparel, Vice Rector of DEU, indicated that dreams needed to become realities, Prof. Dr. Semih Ötleş, Vice Rector of EU, pointed out that education solely depended on knowledge in the recent years, and it involved a sustainable economic development.
Following the speeches, the young prospective entrepreneurs were awarded their certificates at the ceremony.
