SOSIAD Emphasized the Importance of Career Opportunities in the Sector on World Refrigeration Day

SOSIAD organized an online event under the title of "Champions of Refrigeration: Respectable Careers for a Better World", this year's theme of 26 June World Refrigeration Day. The webinar, which was held on Friday, June 25 between 10.00-12.00 and moderated by SOSIAD Secretary General Hayati Can, drew attention to the increasing need for qualified personnel in the cooling sector and career opportunities in the sector.

The webinar started with the opening speeches of SOSİAD Chairman of the Board of Directors Turgay Karakuş, ISKAV Chairman of the Board of Directors Taner Yone and ESSİAD Vice Chairman of the Board Seçkin Tuncer Erdoğmuş.
In order to address the career opportunities in the sector and to express the approaches that will enable young people to turn to the refrigeration industry; Istanbul Provincial National Education Deputy Director for Vocational Education Serkan Gür, Honorary Member of SOSİAD Dr. Kadir İsa, Alarko Carrier Human Resources Manager Elif Çağlar Saygılı and ESSİAD Honorary Member Turan Erkan shared their knowledge and experience.

The pandemic process accelerated the digitalization process
Turgay Karakuş, in his opening speech, said that the key role of refrigeration was underlined in parallel with the remarkable importance of food and drug safety during the Covid-19 pandemic process. Karakuş added that the pandemic also accelerated the digitalization process and revealed the importance of factories switching to automation, robot technologies and industry 4.0: “The world has jumped into a technological age. We can call this the 'Advanced Technology and Digitization Age'. Global warming was not well understood until this period. I hope this new era we are stepping into will lead to the understanding of this reality and the fulfillment of its requirements.”

For the cold chain, a good education chain needs to be established. 
In his speech, which started by drawing attention to the climate crisis, Taner Yonet said that as the need for cooling increases, energy consumption also increases and the world must also be cooled because of the global warming we face due to the fact that the use of fossil fuels has not been abandoned. Yonet, “Hard days are waiting for us. For the cold chain, a good education chain needs to be established. From the engineer to the technician to the academician, all links of the chain must be 'improved'. Ethical values ​​should also be addressed in this education chain. There are also many gray areas in cooling. Against these, the ISKAV TAB (Testing, Adjusting and Balancing) certification program aims to measure and balance systems at both engineer and technician levels and to provide trouble-free service. Our F-Gas trainings are held under the umbrella of İSMEK. Our program, titled Training of Educators, has been increased to two months, January and July, upon request. Our commission, which was established for the Inspection of Indoor Air Conditioning Systems, has designed a very comprehensive program. There was also a request from the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Building. This audit and certification work will start with Ankara Metropolitan Municipality.

The export potential of the refrigeration sector is very high, career opportunities are many
Seçkin Tuncer Erdoğmuş included the activities of ESSİAD in his speech and said that the cooling sector, which has a very high export potential, is a very wide business area. Erdoğmuş; Accredited Test and Analysis Center EHİS LAB, ESEM Technical Trainings, F-Gas project carried out in cooperation with Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, School to Work project that aims to attract the attention of young people to the cooling sector, Refrigeration Skills Competition within the scope of TESKON. Erdoğmuş ended his speech with the words “If the Industry Grows, We Will All Progress”.

We aim to integrate vocational education with production and the sector.
Istanbul Provincial National Education Deputy Director in charge of Vocational Education Serkan Gür started his speech by pointing out that the cooperation with the sector has increased six times compared to the level of 2015. He underlined that he realized a production volume of 61 million TL with products such as UV-C device. Stating that it is aimed to increase the production from half a billion liras to one billion liras throughout Turkey, Gür summarized: “We call the producing schools the factories of the nation. The aim here is not to compete with the sector, but to ensure that vocational education is intertwined with production and the sector. Yes, installation technologies were not in high demand in vocational education, because there was a perception break in this area, but the momentum turned upwards. This field preference increased by 120% compared to the previous year. We have a total of 4,000 students and 150 teachers in Istanbul. There are departments on cooling and air conditioning in 20 of our schools. Istanbul represents 20% of Turkey in education statistics. Based on this ratio, you can calculate the total for Turkey. We can initiate a cooperation with you and our NGOs in order to raise a qualified workforce that meets the expectations of the sector. We can raise the required workforce together with you. Our ministry has a very flexible structure. We can realize a real production about your sector in our schools. Our Ministry supports our projects that we produce as a budget. In the past two years we have established four schools with a brand new concept. Bilingual education is provided. Maybe we should set up a school with you too.”

We definitely need to win Vocational High School students
In his speech, Kadir İsa conveyed his personal experiences regarding vocational high school education and said: He had a very good educational background and a respectable position. During my 1973-1976 secondary school years, I was working as an apprentice in a shop that produces a showcase type cooler in Söğütlüçeşme, Kadıköy. I entered the refrigeration industry for the first time here. I could spend the pocket money my father gave me, but I could not easily spend the money I earned myself. I learned the value of hard work and effort very early. My father was a miller in the Arçelik mold workshop. Thanks to him, I learned milling. I went to vocational high school. My father said, 'Now your hand has touched the oil, you cannot escape'. I said, 'Who wants to be saved? We had a teacher, a mechanical engineer major, who came from outside the Vocational High School. I wanted to be a teacher by being very impressed by him. He told me to learn a foreign language. In 1979, Turkey had a closed economy and these things were not easy. I sent an advertisement to a magazine in Helsinki. In the ad, I had a request to get pen pals with whom I could correspond in English. I received 35 replies, 34 of which I shared with my class, I corresponded with one of them for many years. We had versatile, multi-talented friends in our class. Five of my friends were cartoonists of Gırgır Magazine. Everyone had a hobby. Vocational high school education should not only consist of technique. The student must also complete his social development. This is very important in order to break the negative prejudice about vocational high schools. In those years, I also turned to sports. For two years, I played sports in the then known Efes Pilsen Basketball team. We definitely need to win Vocational High School students. You know, as they say, 'You have to leave no one behind'."

Refrigeration, air conditioning; a large industry with nearly four million jobs
Elif Çağlar Saygılı gave information about the human resources policy and management at Alarko Carrier, where 655 people are employed. He emphasized that it is a large sector with approximately four million jobs. Saygılı said that career companies are at the forefront of his organization's recruitment channels, followed by social media applications, career days, internships, high school and university collaborations, İŞKUR and personal applications. Saygılı listed the criteria sought for employees to be recruited as follows: "To have the training appropriate for the sector, internship information, graduation projects if any, foreign language knowledge, computer knowledge, a short cover letter stating the career goal, research personality, being open to innovations and new technologies Being able to work in an agile organization, being prone to teamwork, time and result-oriented work, being able to follow the processes effectively and high motivation.”

We must be on a continuous learning journey.
Turan Erkan started his speech by emphasizing that before he became a mechanical engineer, he graduated from the "Technical High School" as it was called, and drew attention to the fact that one of the reasons for global warming is the inability to use technology correctly, with the words "Technology is like a double-edged sword, one must be able to use it correctly". Erkan emphasized that we understand the efforts of developed countries to reduce per capita energy consumption with a delay and that it is of great importance for us to realize high value-added production and said, “We must be on a continuous learning journey”.

Refrigeration industry employees are actually doing a public duty.
Making the closing speech, Hayati Can emphasized that the industry should work so that the cooling at the service of people does not harm the nature, and underlined that the employees of the cooling sector actually perform a public duty.

After the event, the “Cooling Systems and Service Applications” book, prepared by Friterm, was sent to the e-mail addresses of the participants in PDF format.