The Ministry of National Education and the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB) Monday signed a cooperation protocol on vocational and technical training to raise future experts.

The implementation of the protocol will start with the training of teachers in fields of industrial automation technology, aircraft maintenance, artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, big data, aircraft technology and avionics. Following the training of teachers in the related fields, the program will become more comprehensive with the involvement of students in the process aimed at strengthening vocational training in secondary education, raising experts and increasing awareness about defense industries. It is intended that 2,023 teachers will receive training in fields relevant to the defense industry until 2023, the centennial of the Republic of Turkey.

In the first phase, the protocol will cover information technology, electric and electronic technology, industrial automation technology, shipbuilding and many other fields. The protocol is considered a new step by the Education Ministry and SSB to reach the objective of raising a new generation of experts and enhancing current capacities and facilities.

As part of the cooperation, the human resources of the Education Ministry and the SSB's expertise and capacity will come together to encourage the engineers of the future. Accordingly, the teachers will be able to directly access correct information from the institutions of the defense industry and participate in the process of experience-sharing, thus enabling efficiency.

The process will pave way for reaching out to promising and intelligent students at the secondary education level. Furthermore, concrete steps will be taken to invest in human resources in the field of technology, creativity and innovation. According to sources, a meeting between the two institutions placed particular importance on AI, big data, cybersecurity and evaluating the current state of these fields.

The SSB, which was tied to the Presidency in 2017, has been conducting more than 600 projects and increased its efforts related to students at the secondary education level as well as teachers as per instructions from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the chair of the Defense Industry Executive Committee.In line with the instructions from Erdoğan, the SSB will increase projects for high school students as well. With direct investments in human resource, it has targeted to meet the defense needs from national sources and increase the contribution of SSB to technological development and export.

The education ministry and Turkey's defense giant ASELSAN signed a protocol last month agreeing on the establishment of the country's first vocational and technical high school specializing in defense industry systems. Accordingly, departments such as electrical and electronic engineering and machine technology as well as programs such as defense electric systems and defense mechanic systems will be introduced at schools. The specialized field or branch courses will be given by trainers and experts from Turkey's largest military contractor, ASELSAN. The company will also offer internship opportunities.