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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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-
Anadolu University Faculty of Education
Instructor
Yapıcıoğlu
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
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).
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Table 2. 1st National Mutual Learning Seminar Programme
Location
Time
Activity
Anadolu University Guesthouse
09:00-10:30
1. Session:
Seminar Room
- 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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