The seventh Project Market event of the Technopark Defense Industry Cluster (TDIC), focused on "sectoral cooperation" and "qualified workforce," was held on February 5, 2020, at the Middle East Technical University (METU) Culture and Convention Center.
In his opening remarks, Salim Atay, The President of the Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye Human Resources Office, emphasized the Office's commitment to providing policymakers and decision-makers with accurate data and supporting data-driven decision-making processes. Atay noted that they are working on various projects with this objective in mind, stating,"Our office policy is to ensure that our country is also preferred choice by others. If our citizens go abroad, it is important that they eventually recognize this country as the primary place to which they should return."
Atay also highlighted the ongoing efforts to prepare Türkiye's Human Resources Inventory system, stating, "Soon, we will provide relevant institutions and organizations with macro-level data, enabling them to conduct more effective human resources planning."
During his speech, Atay shared statistics within the scope of the Presidential Human Resources Office's Uni-Veri project. Atay pointed out that the number of individuals employed in the defense industry has increased fourfold over the past five years, yet, regrettably, only 26% of these employees are women, while the remaining 74% are men.
Atay further elaborated, "While 92% of those employed in the defense industry are graduates of engineering departments, 30% of these employees are electrical and electronics engineers, 24% are mechanical engineers, and 15% are computer engineers." Atay also identified the top three universities contributing to the most graduates in the defense industry as follows: "28% from METU, 11% from İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, and 9% from Istanbul Technical University (ITU)."