What is YetGen? | 21st Century Skills

 Hi there! I am back again with some exciting news. I have joined MZV-MEF Yetkin Gençler (YetGen) 21st Century Training Program as a trainee. YetGen is an extensive 14-week 21st Century Skills Training Program which includes trainings like Leadership, Effective Presentation Skills and Teamwork, Content Writing, Career Planning, Excel, Digital/Information Literacy, Algorithmic Thinking, Sustainability and Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The training was founded by Prof. Dr. Erhan Erkut. We have already had the first session yesterday. I will be sharing my notes and my whole learning journey with you.



Firstly, we focused on the concept of the 'Quality Education' with our trainer Erhan Erkut. The UN describes the goal of Quality Education as ensuring “inclusive and equitable quality education and [promoting] lifelong learning. Let's have look at whether this is the case in Turkey :) The dropout rate is quite high in Turkey and the number of unemployed graduates increases every day. As the children grow up, they lose their creativity. Here are some of the reasons why Turkey has failed in quality education:

- The quality was pushed aside in order to increase the access of the education. The rate of unemployed youth has increased in direct proportion to the number of colleges as the quality of education was ignored. 

- The resources for education are insufficient.

- The education is out of date. (It aims to train obedient workers carrying out commands for factories. The aim is to kill creativity.)

- There is a great adherence to the curriculum content. (However, we should focus on building competencies like teamwork, leadership for students)

- The system asks for competition rather than collaboration. 

- It does not allow questions. It is aimed to raise people without critical thinking skills.

- The education system is directed by politicians with a one-size-fits-all approach.

Prof. Dr. Erhan Erkut has a delightful TED Talk on this topic. You can have a detailed information by clicking on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzyXed8C7A He divides education history into different periods and names these as web tool generations in a fun way:

Education 1.0: The Stone Age of Education. It is the time when we acquire world knowledge from our parents.

Education 2.0: Master-apprentice system. We learn by doing here. The knowledge is acquired through experience rather than books. Occupations like farmer, tailor can be listed in this category.

Education 3.0: After the invention of the school concept in 1800, the basic literacy skills and routine jobs such as directing time and direction were taught in schools. The main aim was to educate workers for industrial factories.

* And what do you think? What era are we still in? :)

Later on, we briefly talked about 21st century skills. You can check P21.org for detailed information and guides. Here is the 21st century competencies framework for you: 


Considering these skills, Bill Honig suggests that public education has three purposes: 

1. job preparation, 

2. active civic participation,

3. leading a full life. 

In the second session, we gained insights on Learning How to Learn, Time Management and Note-taking Skills. CLICK HERE to read my post.


My first impressions towards the program are very positive. I feel more than excited for the whole process. I feel super lucky to be a part of this huge team. I highly suggest life-long learners to apply for the next term. You can learn about the content of the courses through this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmaCdZm9Op8&list=PLU_y6q1nf9t4f43IKF5Pwh4XoB78ou1YN&index=1

Let me know about your thoughts! ❤


RESOURCES:

https://yetkingencler.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmaCdZm9Op8&list=PLU_y6q1nf9t4f43IKF5Pwh4XoB78ou1YN&index=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMzyXed8C7A

https://medium.com/yetkingencler/i%CC%87%C5%9Fsiz-%C3%BCniversite-mezunlar%C4%B1-c868925d8ded

https://ed100.org/lessons/purpose#:~:text=Bill%20Honig%2C%20a%20former%20Califonia,and%20leading%20a%20full%20life.

https://www.battelleforkids.org/networks/p21/frameworks-resources

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