Within the scope of the “Increasing Employability for Syrian Refugees and Turkish Host Community Members” project, funded by the Republic of Korea and implemented by United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Turkey in partnership with the Ministry of National Education (MoNE), Directorate General for Life-Long Learning, online trainings for 40 MoNE’s assigned, and Public Education Center (PEC) teachers were completed between the dates 25-29 January 2021. The project aims to increase the access to the employability of 500 people in the renewable energy sector with applied vocational and technical trainings which is approved by MoNE, and the trainers who received “Photovoltaic Solar Panel Installation and Hybrid (Solar-Wind) System Integration Training of Trainers” will contribute to creation of a workforce with necessary technical and professional competencies in the field of solar and wind energy.

The project “Increasing Employability for Syrian Refugees and Turkish Host Community Members” implemented under UNDP Turkey’s Syria Crises Response and Resilience Portfolio, aims to contribute to sustainable development, local socio-economic development, and social cohesion by creating a trained human resource in the field of the renewable energy sector and increasing their employability. At least 500 Syrians under temporary protection and host community members are planned to benefit from applied technical and vocational trainings with the participation of 300 people in Bursa, Kocaeli, and Konya provinces in the first phase and then 200 people in Hatay and Mersin provinces. Participants will acquire professional and technical skills in renewable energy sector, especially in the installation, maintenance, and repair of existing equipment and systems of plants and facilities producing renewable energy in the field of solar and wind energy. 

In this context, the training of 40 MoNE’s assigned and PEC teachers who will provide vocational and technical trainings in 5 provinces to 500 trainees have been completed. The “Photovoltaic Solar Panels Installation and Hybrid (Solar-Wind) System Integration Training of Trainers” held online due to COVID-19 measures, on January 25-29, 2021. 40 trainers from renewable energy technologies, electrical-electronic technologies, industrial automation technologies fields were informed about the curriculum to be delivered to trainees in the upcoming phases of the project.  On 16 February 2021, UNDP Syria Crises Response and Resilience Portfolio Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Consultant Dr. İdil Ceylan delivered “Inclusive Classroom Practices Seminar” in order to support the improvement of the service provision of the trainers, to discuss what are the inclusive classroom practices and opportunities and to create a mutual learning process on gender equality in the workplace.

The training of trainers program consisting of environmental, technical, and economic bases of orientation to renewable energy, introduction to solar energy (PV) electricity, basic principles of direct current and alternating current, measurements of physical quantitates, converter and inverter circuits, electrical installation of the PV plant, photovoltaic system installation area and construction, installation, maintenance, and repair of solar panels, GES automation follow-up, hybrid system installation, occupational health and safety issues was delivered for 20 hours in total for each group of trainers. During the training, presentations and visuals suitable for online learning were used by lead trainer from Metosfer Energy Dr. Levent Yalçın, Aykut Sağırkaya, Savaş Kuşçu and Tevfik Akkaş, Application-oriented activities such as factory visits, installation of solar panels on the roof were performed live and were included in the online training with camera.

In the scope of the project “Increasing Employability for Syrian Refugees and Turkish Host Community Members” funded by the Republic of Korea, which aims to contribute to sustainable development, social cohesion and socio-economic development by creating a trained human resource in the field of renewable energy and supporting employment potential in the sector, the first phase of trainings has started in three provinces: Konya, Kocaeli and Bursa in March 2021 with the participation of 67 trainees. Masks, sanitizers, and a training kit including pen, notebook, USB and an environment-friendly bag have been distributed to those provinces to be used by the trainees and the trainers.