Turkey's national aerospace platform signed a protocol with 16 top engineering universities to provide internships and support to engineers training for careers in the industry.

The Turkish Aerospace Industry (TAI), which develops solutions to national security needs and new technologies, is expanding its previous university collaboration, in hopes of boosting defense projects like the T129 ATAK helicopter, ANKA drone series and HÜRKUŞ aircraft.

The company strengthens its staff each year by hiring top engineering graduates, who usually take about two years to transition into new aerospace projects.

With the intern engineering program, TAI hopes to boost productivity by integrating engineers faster, training them before graduation to create a future staff.

"We need to increase our engineer count from 2,000 to 12,000 to develop domestic projects. We hired 500 engineers last year alone," TAI General Manager Temel Kotil at the signing ceremony for the protocol.

Third and fourth year students from participating universities will be eligible for the program, which is paid for by TAI.

Kotil said if at least 3,000 engineers are recruited, the partnership will be one of TAI's biggest initiatives.

Headquartered in the capital Ankara, TAI designs, developments, manufactures and integrates aerospace systems as well as modernizing retired technologies both domestically and internationally.