Cooperation Protocol Signed with TBD 

Cooperation protocol, prepared by Middle East Technical University (METU) and Turkey Informatics Association (TBD), was signed for the development and dissemination of BİLGEİŞ project. 

METU Vice Rector Gönül Sayan, Turkey Informatics Association President İlker Tabak, METU Computer Education and Instructional Technology Department Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Kürşat Çağıltay TBD representatives and BİLGEİŞ project team. attended the signature ceremony held in the Senate Hall of METU Rector building. 

METU Vice Rector Gönül Sayan made the opening speech, thanked TBD for their support, emphasizing the importance of their cooperation carried out within the scope of BİLGEİŞ project. 

After the vice-rector speech, Chairman of the TBD Board Ilker Tabak took the floor, stated that 90 percent of Turkey’s industrial business is composed by SMEs, and they are involved in the BİLGEİŞ project as stakeholders because they care for the employer and employee productivity. 

After the opening speeches, Çağıltay performed a short presentation and explained that SMEs, the project’s target group, have an important productivity problem. Çağıltay stated their current work on the BİLGEİŞ project will aim to support the enterprises to become efficient and competitive, and expressed their will to upgrade SMEs to the European Union level. Çağıltay said that SMEs increased their interest in recent years toward new technologies, and underlined that number of SME choosing to get in the electronic environment raised from 30,000 to 300,000 between the years 2003 -2016. 

Çağıltay stated their intention to resolve the training needs of SMEs with bilgeis.net, by providing employer-friendly trainings in financial and schedule terms. Çağıltay described the preparation of 100 training modules in the Portal, with a majority based on Information and Communication Technology, and announced applications for courses like “Virtual reality for SMEs”, “Marketing through the Internet”,” Advertising and sales”, “Marketing on mobile devices”, “Use of solar energy for SMEs”, will be opened very soon. 

Çağıltay announced the courses will be free of charge and open to everyone, and said they hope besides SMEs, unemployed, people with disabilities and other interested groups will also benefit from these courses.