British Council, Ministry of National Education General Directorate of Girls’ Technical Education and Junior Achievement are pleased to announce the launch of the Skills@Work Challenge, an enterprise competition for young people from vocational schools aged 14-18, from 9 countries in the South East Europe Region (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Israel, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey) and the UK.

The Skills@Work Challenge is a series of national competitions, leading to an international competition, aiming to encourage young people to use their skills in enterprising and innovative ways, ultimately enhancing their employability and entrepreneurial flair. More than 1000 students are expected to take part in the national competitions.

Throughout this competition, BC is aiming to support the young people to feel an interest on economy and business life, to improve different kinds of perception and develop their competing abilities at high school age.

The Skills@Work Challenge is aiming:

			To support the students’ technical abilities which are gained through the vocational and technical education with creativity and entrepreneurship.
			To gather the students and professional executives together in order to make the students meet the business life
			To provide entrepreneurship and creativity oriented trainings which aren’t included in formal curricula and preparing the students to develop “learning by doing”.
			To multiply the collaboration of government and private sector in order to multiply the reputation of vocational and technical education

The competition announced through 50 vocational high schools in Istanbul. The schools which wanted to compete in skills@work challenge  build a team of 5 members and prepared a project file according to this challenge:

“We’re running out of resources on our mother earth. We need you to stop this for a better future. Develop a project in your field to turn the waste into a contribution”

MEET FINALIST SCHOOLS!

1. Atatürk Kız Meslek Anadolu Meslek Lisesi – Ayna
2. Bakırköy Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi – Gra-fikir
3. Beyoğlu Ayşe Ege Kız Meslek Lisesi – Kafadarlar
4. Cağaloğlu Anadolu Moda Tasarimi Meslek Lisesi – Metamorfoz
5. Avcılar İHKİB Hazırgiyim ve Konfeksiyon Meslek Lisesi – Turkuaz
6. Kağıthane İHKİB Hazır Giyim Meslek Lisesi – Gökkuşağı
7. Kartal İMKB Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi – Abaküs
8. Küçükköy Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi – Atık Dostları
9. 30 Ağustos Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi – Buharlı Tencere
10. Sabiha Gökçen Anadolu Kız Meslek ve Kız Meslek Lisesi – Gizli Yetenekler
11. Ümraniye Anadolu Meslek ve Kız Meslek Lisesi – Yaşayan Dünya
12. Üsküdar İMKB Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi – Su Savaşçıları
13. İHKİB Yenibosna Hazır Giyim Meslek Lisesi – İHKİB Çorapçıları
14. Zeytinburnu İMKB Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi – Pozitif
15. İstanbul Beşiktaş Ortaköy Zübeyde Hanım Kız Teknik ve Meslek Lisesi – Günebakan Çiçekler

During the national final 100 students from the vocational schools received trainings from Junior Achievement on entrepreneurship, creativity, team building, marketing related issues and prepared another project presentation according to another new challenge which were given them after the trainings.

The national competition was a one-day ‘challenge’ held in Istanbul at Aydın University. All the teams demonstrated their skills and knowledge of innovative business practices, but one team grabbed the prizes of the jury for their ideas and presentations

The winner of the competition “Water Warriors” from Üsküdar İMKB Girl’s Technical Occupational High School Sevinç Kaya, Feyza Besler, Esra Akıllıoğlu, Nazire Seyma Sipahioğlu, Hatice Hazal Topuz participated in the international final in Sofia on 11-13 March 2009. 56 young entrepreneurs from 9 South East European countries and the UK competed in teams of mixed nationalities.

Find out more information about the international competition.

For further information please contact emine.carkcioglu@britishcouncil.org.tr or

Sema Şentürk
Ministry of National Education
General Directorate of Girls’ Technical Education
Tel: 0312 413 1397
e-mail: fssenturk@meb.gov.tr