IZMIR KAVRAM VOCATIONAL SCHOOL ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT

Izmir Kavram Vocational School (IKMYO) is a foundational higher education institution, established in 2008. Our school offers short cycle (two year) associate degree programmes, which are classified under three headings: Social Programs, Health Programs and Technical Programs. Since its establishment our school has been working to fill the gap in Turkish vocational education, by meeting the need for qualified intermediate staff; as well as provide our students with opportunity to successfully transition to more advanced stages of higher education. IKMYO’s mission is to prepare a vocational training environment that is compatible with the needs of the real working world, in order to raise professional staff that is up-to-date on developing technological innovations, and able to transform their knowledge into skill. Our vision is to be an innovative and pioneering higher education institution, which trains intermediate staff that meets the norms of current business practices. In a global context, this can be interpreted as a determination to participate in activities that will enable us to learn from, and compete with our peers on an international level, so that we may provide our students with the qualifications they need to compete in the international job market.   

Through our internationalization policy, we aim to create a supportive and encouraging environment which allows innovative enterprising research and development, and studies in the area of public service to be conducted on an international level. We continuously work on developing and practices that aid our academic and administrative staff in adaptation and orientation to international standards.  As a global higher education institution, we aim to see our students graduate as well-educated individuals, who are equipped with the knowledge and core transferable competences they need, in order to be successful in high-skill occupations. To this end we strive to create, develop and sustain partnerships to ensure that our students become highly-skilled individuals who are able to academically and professionally compete, in an increasingly international, inter-cultural and integrated world.

Within the scope of the Erasmus+ Programme we cooperate with universities from different countries so that our students may benefit fully from international exchanges, and become part of the European student community. International collaboration, and participation in the EU Programmes ensures that academic quality is maintained, developed, and presented outside of the institution. Our vocational college aims to constantly increase the quality of its education, and views the experience that students and staff gain from participation in exchange programmes is a key contributor in this regard. Participating in international exchange programmes, creates a healthy sense of competition and motivates both students and staff to improve themselves and work harder; which greatly contributes to our school’s quality of education. We believe that studying and training abroad gives the participants an international perspective; which socially, culturally and professionally contributes to their career-building, and is essential in order to fulfil their personal and career goals. Aside from foreign language skills, spending time abroad helps acquire and develop adaptability, communication and intercultural awareness; all of which are skills valued by employers. 

The highly competitive job market, requires higher education institutes to collaborate with industries and businesses, allowing for information transfer and training projects in addition to, and in support of research and development activities. We carry out intensive studies to sign cooperation protocols that will be beneficial for all of our programs, with the region’s leading institutions and organizations in relevant sectors, so that we can provide education, practice and internship opportunities which enable our students to adapt the education they gain to business life. To this end we have signed 41 cooperation protocols with various types of institutions, including, organizations, businesses, NGOs, and universities, in the areas of vocational training, internship, and social responsibility. We work to actively help students to manage their career processes, with the support of sectoral collaborations. Within the framework of our mission to train qualified and well-equipped intermediate staff, our school ensures that students receive training by personally practicing, find internship opportunities in institutions and organizations that are leading and exemplary in their sectors, and ultimately works to increase employment opportunities for our graduates. As an institution which focuses on vocational education and training, it is important for us to be able to provide international traineeship opportunities to our students, in addition to local ones. To this end we aim to increase the number of outgoing students that participate in student mobility for traineeship, and to broaden the scope of our partnerships through new agreements, projects and consortiums. 

We are aware that promoting international cooperation opportunities and international exchange programs makes our institution more attractive to potential students, and increases our institution’s competitiveness, both locally and globally. To this end, we are constantly looking to increase the number of courses and study programmes offered in English at our school, so that we can create better partnerships with high-quality institutions, and become more inviting for incoming students. 

As Izmir Kavram Vocational School, we continuously work to ensure our school offers an educational and professional space that is concordant to EU values and the priorities of the Erasmus+ programme. As part of our inclusion methods and diversity strategy, we have several commissions and units which work to raise both our students’ and staff’s awareness on diversity and equality, in order to ensure that our school is an accessible, safe, and fair place for everyone under our roof. Our school has received several awards due to the accessibility of its facilities; and through the work of our accessibility unit and our guidance and counselling services we work to serve the physical and psychological needs of all of our students. Our student groups work as self-governed units, where our students are expected to gain a better understanding of the components of democratic life and experience the democratic processes first-hand. As an educational institution, we don’t believe our duty ends with the vocational and professional training of our students, but extends to ensuring that they graduate with a high awareness of the wider society around them, and an increased sense of social responsibility.

As part of our quality policy we constantly provide in-service training to our staff in the areas of equality and diversity, sustainability, environmental responsibility, waste management and digitalization, to ensure that these values become integral to our corporate culture. Through the work of our academic commissions we constantly conduct research in the areas of women’s studies, climate change prevention, sustainability, environmental studies and zero-waste strategies, and aim to find international partners with which we can collaborate with. Through these efforts, we strive to contribute to the development of the region and the improvement of our society’s standards of living. Our college’s main mission is to create and disseminate knowledge and expertise, as well as to pursue scientific, technological, cultural, and artistic excellence within a framework of the international quality standards, in order to introduce welleducated and entrepreneurial citizens into society.