Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Noting that the world is changing rapidly, Hisarciklıoğlu said that as the descendants of the first scientist Archimedes, they managed to change the world tremendously; driverless cars, drones, assistant robots, artificial intelligence and virtual reality are the facts of the new world.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the world is mobile; customer, market, supplier, all the elements are connected to a single computer. Stating that the official name of this era is technology, science, internet age, the TOBB President, stated that a good team with a single computer and a good idea is enough to be rich.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said that they live in an era where no job is guaranteed and it is increasingly difficult to find a job, “Those who are behind the age are unable to compete, survive; they fall behind and lose. Information is growing rapidly. The way we do business is overturning convention.”

Touching on what the American thinker Warren Bennis said in 1991, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “‘There will only be two living things in the factory of the future: a dog and a human.' The duty of man is to feed the dog in the factory; the dog's duty is to keep the human from getting close to the machines. In short, in the factory of the future, there will be little need for living things; machines will do everything. But at the point where we are today, what we think about the factory of the future has begun to change dramatically. Now we need more; the factory of the future requires more results-oriented employees who know how to evaluate and solve problems. The employees who will run it need to be extremely resourceful, as the process will be disrupted in some way and stopped functioning when the machines are working in the factory of the future. They need to be flexible and capable of responding immediately to problems that will arise and to produce solutions. So they need to be able to understand as a whole what's being done in that factory.  They should be able to think in an interdisciplinary manner. They must have access to the right information quickly.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that the new era of industrial revolution should change universities and all schools, and that it is necessary to bring the education model into line with the requirements of the new era and that they established Turkey's first artificial intelligence engineering department at TOBB ETU with this goal in mind.

Hisarcıklıoğlu, referring to what needs to be done to educate the human resources demanded by the business world, said, “We should not limit our young people. We raised them for years not to be dreamers. Of course we have to encourage targets. Of course we have to get in the habit of working. Today, the fastest growing companies all have one thing in common: using technology! In the future, we have to talk to the machines as much as we talk to each other. It is no longer enough to master Turkish and a foreign language. We must also teach a programming language to all professional groups.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu, emphasizing that young people are afraid to fail, to make mistakes, said, “I say to my colleagues: where there is work, there will be mistakes! There is surely failure and perseverance behind great achievements. Google is the 21^st search engine in the world. So Google is an idea that failed 20 times before it became Google. We should have an approach that does not scare them, encourages them to try.”

Stating the need for an all-out change of mindset, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that the era is now the era of inventing and bringing new conventions to the old village.

Noting that the partnership culture is weak, the TOBB President said, “The ability to work as a team is one of the most important skills 21^st century. We don't like doing business together. Fighting, ego comes up. The way to win is to join forces. We have to change this culture. We need to develop a practice-based training model based on real problems. I'm sorry to see that when young people start work, they're full of theoretical knowledge. They graduate from college successfully, but don't know what that knowledge he's learned is going to do in the field! Of course, that information will become outdated in maybe a few years. That's why we have to teach young people how to learn. And we need to compare the real problems that the business world needs when we're students. Look, I am not only the TOBB President, but also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of TOBB ETU, the university of the Turkish business world. We started university industry cooperation in Turkey with a real, joint education model. Our students are studying for three semesters. They learn in the classroom as well as in the field. Our students graduate with a year of work experience. Fortunately, this system is functioning successfully. 48% of our graduates find work in the first month and 82% in the first year. The common education model entered the election declarations of all parties.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stressed that they have to raise an entrepreneurial youth; entrepreneurship is the way to prosper. Countries are importing entrepreneurs and the solution of unemployment is entrepreneurship.

Stating that he is hopeful for Turkey's future, Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Turkey's potential is immense; that there is no oil or natural gas, but there is a great dynamic, young population. With them correctly directed Turkey will achieve its goals easily.

- Vice President Fuat Oktay

Vice President Fuat Oktay said the country's most important wealth in regards to sustainable development is human resources.

Stating that, in the era of digital transformation, creating a social structure that will ensure sustainable development and growth as well as shaping infrastructure and educational opportunities is among the priorities of all decision makers, Oktay said that developments in areas such as robotic systems, automation, artificial intelligence and biotechnology have opened the door to a completely different future.

Within the scope of the Development Plan, determining the workforce profile needed for the national technology move and updating secondary and higher education programs for this need is among the action plans, Oktay said and continued:

“At the same time, in order to increase practical knowledge and experience in addition to theory, internship programs are continuing to integrate the business world into education. In addition to the 11^th Development Plan, creating policies that closely follow the world and prioritize the development of human capital are among the six main components of the National Technology Move mobilization. Thanks to the Chairman of the Higher Education Board, who started updating the higher education programs without wasting any time in line with our strategic objectives, and our universities that quickly incorporated new departments into their academic programs. We are pleased that departments like Artificial Intelligence Engineering and Three-Dimensional Modeling have already been opened at TOBB University. I believe that new strategic programs will continue to open in 2020 in line with the outputs of the congress today.”

Fuat Oktay, taking into account the transformation of professions within the scope of the PhD program provided by YÖK to 2,000 people in 100 thematic fields, the prioritization of scholarships in areas such as cyber security, artificial intelligence, machine learning and drug design is admirable.

Considering the speed of the transformations experienced, the pace of adaptation of institutions is not yet at the desired level, Oktay said, “Research and strategy determination for the professions of the future should be further increased. In addition to opening strategic higher education programs, the contents of the program need to be updated continuously. It is also important that our academicians who train our young people for the professions of the future are constantly improving themselves and updating their course content. It is very critical that our academicians stay abreast of technological developments in the world and opening the horizon for us.”