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Türkiye

Türkiye

8. Creativity and Culture

8.6 Developing entrepreneurial skills through culture

Last update: 21 March 2024
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  1. Developing entrepreneurial skills through cultural activities
  2. Support young entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative sectors

Developing entrepreneurial skills through cultural activities

Within the scope of the Turkey Entrepreneurship Strategy and Action Plan (Türkiye Girişimcilik Stratejisi ve Eylem Planı) (2015-2018), the action of establishing entrepreneur clubs in primary and secondary schools was adopted, and it was stated that these clubs would be designed as clubs that support innovation, patent, R&D and technology culture and encourage productive and innovative skills of young people.  The title “Culture” is also included among the support categories within the scope of the entrepreneurship policy areas under this Document.

Within the scope of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Youth Projects Support Program (Gençlik ve Spor Bakanlığı Gençlik Projeleri Destek Programı), the cultural and historical heritage of professions is revived and training courses on entrepreneurship opportunities are delivered. Particularly by teaching the skills and moral codes specific to the traditional guilds of Turkey, a straightforward entrepreneurship framework is prepared for young people.

1 Master 10 Apprentices Project: Directorate General of Education, Research and Coordination within the Ministry of Youth and Sports carries out many projects in order to introduce traditional crafts to young people, contribute to their professional enterprises and strengthen their cultural acquisition. 1 Master 10 Apprentices Project (1 Usta 10 Çırak projesi) is a culture, art and volunteering project aimed at promoting Anatolian handicrafts that have almost sunk into oblivion, raising awareness on the past’s cultural treasures among young people, ensuring that young people meet their peers within the framework of a cultural and creative activity and helping them learn a handicraft which they may use to find a job in the future or for recreation.

As part of the project, young participants receive training in various art disciplines for 8 days and practical workshop sessions are conducted. At the end of the project, participants are awarded participation certificates. The first implementation of the "1 Master 10 Apprentices" project took place between May 22 and July 3, 2022 with participants selected from Van, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Adana and Trabzon. The second implementation was held in İstanbul between November 6 and 21, 2022 with participants selected from Sakarya and Tekirdağ.

Support young entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative sectors

The subsidy projects summarized below are carried out by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to improve the entrepreneurial skills of young people by ensuring their participation in cultural activities and cultural sectors:

Gençdes Project: Addressed in action 210 of  the  2016 Action Plan of the 64th Government Program (64. Hükümet Programı), measure no. 112 of the Program for 2016 and among actions of the  th Government Program (65. Hükümet Programı), Gençdes Project is a subsidy program aimed at promoting participation of young people in cultural and artistic activities and helping them realize their projects in various branches of art. The project includes three types of subsidies:

Within the scope of the said project, 91 projects were subsidized with a total amount of 8,290,190 TRY in 2016 and 614 projects were subsidized with a total amount of 45,616,675 in 2017. 351 of the projects subsidized in 2017 were in the area of events and projects, whereas 208 projects in the area of activities and 55 projects in the area of work production.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism organizes “Current Art Project Contest” and “Banner Design Contest” in order to support the current art and artists, discover young artists, enhance innovative production and ensure that these works are widely followed by masses in Turkey. Additionally, the YoungVoice Turkish Music Vocal Competition (Gençses Türk Müziği Ses Yarışması) was held in 2022. The competition aimed to encourage young individuals to perform distinguished works of Turkish music at a high level. In the final of the competition, 5 achievement awards, 5 honorable mention awards and 1 special Young Voice award were presented and a total prize of 275,000 TL was distributed.

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism carries on its efforts to enhance the entrepreneurship skills of young people by involving them in theater activities and providing them with opportunities to make their artistic dreams come true.

In addition, young people are admitted to internship programs and assisted in getting acquainted with the sector in the area of culture and art at the Yunus Emre Institute centers in five continents.