Employment-Guaranteed Training for Inexperienced Young Engineers Offered by AKE

AKE Elevator, which operates at Antalya Organized Industrial Zone, offers training and employment opportunities for 40 engineers each year through “AKE-MEP Project, Employment-Guaranteed Training for Inexperienced Young Engineers.”

AKE initiated a vocational training project for engineers who lack work experience and, in the first phase, prepared a training program for 20 engineers. AKE Elevator provides personal, professional and institutional development training to engineers graduated from the departments of electricity, electronics, machinery and mechatronics and, after three months of training, they will continue working with the engineers, if they mutually agree. Two different training modules will be prepared each year for AKE-MEP, and the target is to train and offer business opportunities to 40 young engineers a year.

Within the scope of the project, each year 20 engineers from different branches of engineering with a minimum experience of one year will work in AKE Elevator and Escalator’s production facilities, together with the engineers, workmen and foremen, and will receive theoretical training about the industry from competent teams and managers.

Canan Keskin Gürkan, vice president of AKE Elevator and Escalator, provided information about the activity, and said, “Being an engineer and a technical person in our industry is a valid and necessary business line all over the world. We are the only company in the elevator and escalator industry in Turkey that provides a wide range of products and which is active in manufacturing, installation and technical service. It is our responsibility to make sure that young people love our job. Therefore, we have decided to launch this project twice a year. Thanks to the advantage of having a wide space for production, installation and technical service, we have the room to employ 40 people. Currently, 20 people have signed up for the program. Young and inexperienced people graduated from various engineering departments of Turkey are enrolled.”

Gürkan stated that upon the completion of the project the engineers will be tested, and said, “Then, we will make face-to-face interviews and receive their feedback. Provided that we are happy with them and they are happy with us, their place is ready. They will be paid in line with their positions. Now, they receive their wages from İşkur. Upon the completion of the program, they will continue receiving their wages according to the positions they will be employed for. If they do not want to work here or if they return home and want to set up a elevator company, we will help them to get into a distributorship agreement. Alternatively, if they prefer working in another company, we will help them find a job. Our target here is to make our industry popular.”

Gürkan also gave information about the purpose of the AKE-MEP project and its training activities carried out in recent years. “We have placed emphasis on vocational internship since 2005. We regularly provide a specific internship program for university students. In the elevator and escalator class we have in our vocational high school in the Antalya Organized Industrial Zone, we allow our students to practice the theoretical training they get. We help them meet the elders of the industry and learn from their experiences. We have realized this project in order to take the experience we gained from these programs to a higher level and contribute to the development of our young engineers.

Tezer Özgöçer, the Director of the factory, stated his pleasure for being involved in this social responsibility project and reminded the difficulties he faced when he was looking for job in his young ages.  “I remember that I could not get the jobs I interviewed for because I was inexperienced. So, we now provide experience for our newly graduated brilliant friends”, said Özgöçer.