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Basak Ulgen
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IFC and Turkish Education Firm Join Forces to Boost Youth Employability
Istanbul, Turkey, 19 March 2013--
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is investing $6 million to help Istanbul-based education firm Plato expand vocational training in Turkey and across the region, providing greater employment opportunities for up to 6,000 students over the next five years.
IFC is participating in Plato’s $12 million, four-year plan to build 16 new training centers – 10 in Turkey, three in Central Asia and three in the Middle East and North Africa. Each center will offer diploma and degree courses focused on employment opportunities in media, public relations, visual communications, graphic design, and technology.
"By providing quality, employment-focused education, Plato is helping address one of the region's largest challenges--youth employability," said Guy Ellena, IFC Director for Manufacturing and Services in Europe, Middle East and North Africa. "Businesses like Plato can have a real impact as they expand in Turkey, and take their successful approaches to new and challenging markets such as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Egypt.”
Tolga Yazýcý
, Plato Chairman, said: “Educators should proceed on the understanding that today’s youth do not lack the capacity, but have rather been pointed in the wrong direction. At Plato, we believe that education for employment is correct alignment and the most efficient way to unleash that capacity.”
IFC’s investment in Plato is its first under E4E, a new education initiative for Arab Youth that makes job-oriented education a top priority. Launched in 2011, E4E aims to provide youth in the Middle East and North Africa with skills that are relevant to the marketplace by investing in education, engaging stakeholders, and enabling solutions to provide Arab Youth a better future.
The investment in Plato includes Central Asia and Turkey, where closing the skills gap and helping young people gain the necessary skills for today’s competitive job markets are also priorities.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, mobilizing capital in international financial markets, and providing advisory services to businesses and governments. In FY12, our investments reached an all-time high of more than $20 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs, spark innovation, and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
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