Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and TOBB University of Economics and Technology Vice Rector Yusuf Sarınay attended the signing ceremony held at TOBB's Social Facilities.

TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu noted that TOBB Young Entrepreneurs Council (GGK) is a large family of 8,000 members.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that they have increased awareness of entrepreneurship in Turkey, noting that they’ve made being entrepreneur popular and are leading the way for many valuable projects.

Hisarcıklıoğlu, emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurship for the prosperity and wealth of the country and nation, said, “The stronger the entrepreneurs are, the stronger and competitive the economy becomes. New ideas, world-changing innovations, are always coming from young people. That's why we have a mission to develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem in our country.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said that Turkey will work together to make its young people more knowledgeable, and that efforts should be made to make the youth of today and the future more skilled in order to prosper.

- “Internship is a prerequisite for qualified employees”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the Ministry and the Union have begun a long-term cooperation.

Hisarcıklıoğlu noted that young people will be given entrepreneurship training within the framework of said cooperation, “Every job has its fine points. In addition to the training, we will bring together successful entrepreneurs in our provinces with young people under the auspices of our Ministry.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu said that, in addition to entrepreneurship, it is important to provide internship opportunities for young people, “Internship is a prerequisite for qualified employees.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu emphasized that the young people working in a business during school ages will have a more firmly grounded view of the world.

“We are developing software within this framework. Through this software, we will collect the intern requests of companies and transmit them to our Ministry. Our ministry will also announce the demands to young people. Young people will apply for internships. Members will accept the candidates they deem appropriate for the internship after evaluating the applications.”

- Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu

Youth and Sports Minister Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu said at the opening of the ceremony that the main area of work of the Ministry is to ensure that young people prepare for life in the most effective way.

Kasapoğlu stated that when they met with Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, they discussed how to develop more opportunities offered to young people; how Turkey's entrepreneurial ecosystem can be developed, such as new applications to nurture the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Turkey; to quantitatively and qualitatively support our young human resources and the steps to be taken on to facilitate work life.

Stating that it was decided the Ministry of Youth and Sports and TOBB would combine their power with regards to entrepreneurship, internship and mentoring of young people, Kasapoğlu said:

“There is a sincere effort. Blending TOBB’s accumulation of knowledge and experience with our Ministry's own accumulation is an opportunity for our youth. Therefore, I think the protocol we sign will give our young people very important values. Within the scope of the cooperation protocol, our Ministry will carry out training, promotion and information activities on the importance of entrepreneurship, mentoring and internship. We will create a mentor pool of experienced managers in the business world and implement mentoring studies. We will also coordinate youth centers, youth camps and youth offices and student dormitories for entrepreneurship training and activities. We will make entrepreneurship part of the basic workshops and programs in youth centers and youth camps and implement new software to be developed by TOBB to increase internship opportunities.”

After the speeches, the Entrepreneurship, Mentoring and Internship Cooperation Protocol was signed.