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Enterprise – University Cooperation

1st NATIONAL MUTUAL LEARNING SEMINAR – Minutes

Prof. Dr. Kıymet Selvi

Anadolu University Faculty of Education

Asist. Prof. Dr. Dilruba Kürüm Yapıcıoğlu

Anadolu University Faculty of Education

Instr. Ayşe Dilek Keser

Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages

03.04.2015

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Index

1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3

2. Methodology ..........................................................................................................................4

3. Overall reflections ................................................................................................................. 6 4. Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………... 7 5. Appendices............................................................................................................................. 8

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1. Introduction

Within the framework of the project LETAE, which is undertaken to assess university-enterprise

cooperation in tertiary lifelong learning or university adult education, the first National Mutual

Learning Seminar took place on the 18th of October, 2014. Although the seminar was planned

to be held in two days (18th and 19th), the participants who arrived from other cities

requested the activities to be held within one day, and therefore, the new programme was

adapted accordingly to fit into one day.

The organization of the meeting took about 2 months from the 15th of August until the 15th of

October. Those working in the sector have been reached by e-mail or phone. The contact

information of the participants has been obtained from the course instructors or from the

continuing educational centers at the universities. Therefore, the records already existing in

the university have been benefited from for the selection of the participants. Two lists of 30

permanent and 30 spare persons to participate in the study were created. These lists

contained the instructors, course participants and sector representatives. Firstly, the persons

from the permanent list were invited. However, only 8 out of 30 permanent persons replied.

For this reason, new invitations were sent to the persons in the waiting list. 18 persons in total

agreed to attend the seminar. After the official correspondence was started, onl2 12 persons

attended the meeting regarding the seminar. The seminar was held with 17 persons in total,

including three project staff and two research assistants.

The seminar was organized at Anadolu University Campus and at Teksoy Hotel, in Eskişehir,

Turkey with the participation of representatives from three sectors. While more participants

were invited from other cities including Ankara, some participants had to cancel their travel

due to personal last-minute reasons. As a result, a total of 17 people, including the

researchers in the project attended the meetings (Table 1).

Table 1. List of Participants in the 1st National Mutual Learning Seminar, 18th October 2014

Name Institution Type of participant

1. 1 S. Sırrı Kabadayı Sabiha Gökçen Vocational High School Administrator

2. İbrahim Özsar Sabiha Gökçen Vocational High School Learner

3. Gürsel Tekin Sabiha Gökçen Vocational High School Learner

4. Ender Gerede Anadolu University Faculty of Aviation and Avionics Instructor, coordinator

5. Yeşim Kurt Anadolu University Faculty of Aviation and Avionics Instructor, coordinator

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To find the sector agents, the instructors who taught courses from universities to the sector

were contacted to get some names of prospective participants for the seminar. These

prospective participants were reached by phone and by e-mail and they were informed

about the aims and the program of the seminar. Those who agreed to participate were from

Eskişehir, Ankara and İstanbul. Participants from other cities were accommodated in the

guesthouse of the university.

2. Methodology

The National Learning Seminar was conducted in the form of a SWOT analysis. The seminar

started by taking the signatures of the participants and giving them name tags at Anadolu

University Guesthouse Seminar Room (see Appendix 1 for a sample name tag). The seminar

program is presented in Table 2. The seminar was held on a full working day in four sessions.

In the first session, the participants introduced themselves and talked briefly about their

sectors and their roles in their workplaces. They also briefed others about the nature of the

university-sector cooperation in their institutions, how they became involved in the

cooperation and their overall impression about the courses they have received from

university. They also made remarks about their own cases regarding the education received

within this project. After introducing Anadolu University and the Education Faculty, the

manager of the project introduced also the LETAE project (Appendix 2).

6. Hasan Lik Anadolu University Faculty of Aviation and Avionics Instructor, coordinator

7. Mehmet Çay HEAŞ Sabiha Gökçen Airport Administrator, learner

8. Neşe Gençler HEAŞ Sabiha Gökçen Airport Administrator

9. Atilla Eryıldız Turkish Do&Co THY Administrator, learner,

10. Mehmet Tanyas İstanbul Technical University Instructor, coordinator

11. Halil Halefşan İstanbul Technical University Instructor, coordinator

12. Serdar Dalkılıç Anadolu University Faculty of Aviation and Avionics Instructor, coordinator

13. Kıymet Selvi Anadolu University Faculty of Education Instructor

14. Dilruba Kürüm-

Yapıcıoğlu

Anadolu University Faculty of Education

Instructor

15. Ayşe Dilek Keser Anadolu University School of Foreign Languages Instructor

16. Betül Baldan Anadolu University Faculty of Education Instructor

17. Yaprak Alagöz Anadolu University Faculty of Education Instructor

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Table 2. 1st National Mutual Learning Seminar Programme

Location Time Activity

Anadolu University Guesthouse

Seminar Room

09:00-10:30 1. Session:

- Introduction of the participants and sectors

- Introduction of the university

- Introduction of the LETAE project (PowerPoint

presentation, see Appendix 2)

Teksoy Hotel 10:45-11:00 Transfer to hotel

Teksoy Hotel 11:00-12:30 2. Session: strengths

Teksoy Hotel 12:45-13:30 Lunch break

Teksoy Hotel 13.30-15:00 3. Session: obstacles and weaknesses

Teksoy Hotel 15:15-16:45 4. Session: potentials and suggestions

Teksoy Hotel 17:00-18:00 Wrap-up and final comments

City tour 18:00-19:00 Visit to some main attractions in the city

Trakya Restaurant 19:15-20:30 Dinner

Because the seminar room at the guesthouse was small, the rest of the seminar was held at

Teksoy Hotel where rooms for small groups were available. For each session, the researchers

were split into two small groups with various representatives from sectors. Under the

moderation of the researchers, the participants were asked to reflect upon their perceptions

with general guiding questions in each session.

In the first session, the discussion subject was the ‘the strengths of the university-sector

cooperation.’ The participants were asked the general question ‘What do you think are the

strengths of the cooperation between your enterprise and the university?’ Then, further

questions were directed to probe into more detail. During the session, a researcher took notes

of the minutes while another moderated the discussions. The same procedure was used for 2.

session of ‘obstacles and weaknesses’ and the 3. session ‘potentials and suggestions.’

The mutual learning seminar ended with a wrap-up session in which the participants made

their final comments and reflected further thoughts about the cooperation between the

labor market and the university.

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At the end of the seminar, the participants were given certificates of attendance to the

seminar (Appendix 3).

3. Overall reflections

Below are some of the general thoughts obtained in the sessions.

Strengths

The areas of strengths were mainly about the following:

- When other private courses are available, the university is viewed as a more reliable

institution to cooperate with.

- The teacher factor is highly important. Almost all participants agreed that the skills of the

teacher is vital, but if the teacher has work experience in the field it is yields the best results for

the effectiveness in the courses. Otherwise, without knowing the sector directly from

experience will lead to lack of relevance to work, or the course content will remain too

theoretical. Representatives from two sector stated that the instructor himself was the main

reason why they choose to get the course from university.

Weaknesses and obstacles

- The most important weakness, regarding the cooperation between the University and

different sectors, is the lack of communication between the two institutions and also the lack

of knowledge and experience on how this communication should be carried on. This

weakness acts as an inhibitory factor on educational cooperation.

- Another obstacle between both institutions is the favouring of the not up to date theoretical

knowledge by the universities. On the contrary, different sectors are in need for knowledge

and operational skills which increase the productivity and has fast answers for solving

problems.

Potentials and suggestions

The focus of sectors and university on adult education and the adoption of the concept of

lifelong learning is an important factor which will contribute on increasing the educational

cooperation between both institutions. The common perspective of two institutions for

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educational cooperation and their positive attitude on offering and getting education or

training services from each other institutionally are important indicators that this cooperation

may increase in future.

5. Conclusion

The 1st National Mutual Learning Seminar was realized successfully in Eskişehir with the

participation of 17 attendants from the selected sectors and universities. The participants

were enthusiastic about the cooperation and stated that it was necessary to build more

cooperation in wider, extended areas. The opinions collected in the seminar were closely

linked and similar to the ideas reflected in the semi-structured interviews in the case studies in

the LETAE project. The ideas yielded by means of the seminar can provide further data for the

tool development stage in the project.

However, since there is no proposed framework within the context of the project related to

how to carry out this seminar, the planning and implementation process of the National

Seminar took too much time. In addition, the reluctance of nearly four fifth of the attendants

about participating to the seminar was the most substantial problem in implementation of this

seminar. The most important reason for the reluctance about participating to the seminar was

the trainees’, trainers’ and sector representatives’ problem about time. The negative attitudes

towards these kind of trainings and researches can be stated as the other reasons.

The most important conclusion we had from this research is that the universities in Turkey are

not effective enough in educating and training for the sector. It was seen that the

cooperation between sector and university is rather based on trainers’ contacts arising from

their enterprise and acquaintance with sector and the importance and necessity of the

training’s subject.

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Appendix 1: Name tag sample

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Appendix 2: The PowerPoint presentation

Slide 1: Cover

Slide 2: Contets

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Slide 3: Information about the LETAE project

Slide 4: Goals of the project - cover

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Slide 5: Goals of the project

Slide 6: Project partners

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Slide 7: Methodology

Slide 8: Project meetings

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Slide 9: Thanking

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Appendix 3: Certificate of attendance and gratitude

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Some photographs from the 1st National Mutual Learning Seminar

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