Handover Ceremony of Donated Equipment at Izmir Mazhar Zorlu Anatolian Technical High School

On February 29th, a handover ceremony of the training equipment for industrial automation technology education was held at Izmir Mazhar Zorlu Vocational and Technical Anatolian Highschool. The equipment was provided by JICA as a follow-up cooperation for the project "Establishment of Industrial Automation Technologies Departments in Anatolian Technical High School”. In the past, JICA has implemented this technical cooperation project that supported equipment development and teacher capacity development in the field of industrial automation.
The equipment provided through this cooperation are related to Industrial Automation (Factory Automation), including robots and its automation-related equipment, information and communication equipment, and other electronic parts. The purpose of this cooperation was to resolve malfunctions and defects in the equipment which has been provided under the past project above mentioned, as well as to support its continued use and maintenance.
At the handover ceremony, in addition to officials from Izmir Anatolian Technical High School, we saw participants from Izmir Provincial Directorate of Education, Zorlu conglomerate of Turkiye who is the school’s founder, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation and Omron Corporation, which manufactured the equipment provided, and JICA Turkiye office. The ceremony was held being observed by the students of the school in a solemn and warm atmosphere.

After the ceremony, inspection of the equipment provided through this cooperation was held. In the classroom where the donated equipment was set, the programmed automation robots of pilot car assemble factory were displayed and demonstration of robot operation was given to the participants. The school's teachers said that this kind of programming was almost the same as what they usually learn at university. The demonstration describes the school's high level of education of the automation field.
Subsequently, we toured a laboratory equipped with other educational materials, as well as the Teacher Training Center (TTC) which is adjacent to the project school. At the TTC, there were many equipment which manufactured by Japanese companies. We also observed equipment donated by other donors and private companies in the hope of fostering human resource of the automation field. Graduates of Izmir Mazhar Zorlu High School and school’s development are highly reputated in the industry. Starting with Japan's support, the school's education has attracted attention from many related people, and the inspection clearly shows that the school has grown into a high school with upgraded technical capabilities.
Izmir Mazhar Zorlu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School has been selected as a pilot school for "Establishment of Industrial Automation Technologies Departments in Anatolian Technical High School" project in 2001. Anatolian technical high schools are four-year technical high schools, and there were 157 Anatolian technical high schools established across the country in the early 2000s but there was no industrial automation technologies department. Izmir Mazhar Zorlu High School was built in September 1998 as a donation from Mr. Mazhar Zorlu, an entrepreneur who had been widely active in the plastics industry at the time.
In the Izmir high school, secondary education is provided to develop specialized human resources with the aim of developing industry, especially in the field of manufacturing. At the same time, they have been working to develop teacher’s capabilities in the field of industrial automation. This school has greatly contributed to the industrial revitalization of Izmir and Aegean Region, an industrial city in southwestern Turkiye.

The implementation of the project “Establishment of Industrial Automation Technologies Departments in Anatolian Technical High School”, which is the mother project of this follow-up cooperation, dates back more than 20 years, from 2001 to 2006. In the early 2000s, Turkiye was in a period of remarkable industrial development and it was very important for Turkiye to train high-quality mid-level technicians needed by industry, especially those with automation technology, to establish a vocational education system, and to supply engineers in these fields. Therefore, JICA provided cooperation to establish Department of Industrial Automation Technology (IAT) at two pilot high schools in Izmir and Konya, develop educational curricula, prepare learning and educational materials, and improve teachers' technical capabilities.
Considering this cooperation and its positive outcomes, Ministry of National Education has decided to establish a Teacher Training Center (TTC) at Izmir school in 2003 and subsequently establish a new IAT department at 20 other vocational training high schools in Turkiye. Demand from industry for the training and supply of mid-level technicians was still high, and the Turkish government has been hastening the establishment of an implementation system for training teacher at TTC. Under these circumstances, JICA received a request from the Turkish government and decided to implement the subsequent project "Project on Strengthening the Program of Expanding Industrial Automation Technologies Department (SPREAD)" from 2007 to 2010. JICA supported the development of human resources involved in the development of training plans and the implementation and evaluation of training courses.
Subsequently, in order to further expand the results of these projects, a third country training program ”Industrial Automation Technology (IAT) Extension Project for Central Asian/Middle East Countries” was implemented for nine surrounding countries from 2012 to 2015. In the training, development of training curriculum and teaching materials related to automation technology, and human resources development involved in the implementation of the training was provided. The training proved that capabilities of automation technical education and vocational training has been improved and developed in Izmir Anatolian Technical High School and Turkiye was now equipped to contribute to other countries in the automation training field.
Along with the development of Turkish industry and automation technology, support for automation technology continued to expand, and Izmir Technical High School has developed itself to the point where it can teach IAT education not only to the teachers in Turkiye, but also to personnels from neighboring countries involved in the field. The development of Izmir High School is a symbol of Turkiye's industrial development, and shows that Turkiye's educational environment for training automation technology and engineers has entered a new stage.