ISTANBUL 28 November 2019 – IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it had launched SkillsBuild in Turkey. This program is for job seekers – including those seeking employment, returning to work after leave, or those changing professions – with accredited digital learning content, personalized coaching, and practical learning experience to help them enter the workforce successfully. By partnering with the Entrepreneurship Foundation (GIRVAK) and YenidenBiz, SkillsBuild aims to support job seekers with the skills to enter the workforce for competitive “new collar” jobs, those jobs all about having the right skills, not a specific degree. 

According to a new IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) study, in the next three years, as many as 120 million workers in the world's 12 largest economies may need to be retrained or reskilled as a result of AI and intelligent automation. IBM’s SkillsBuild will help job seekers from challenging social backgrounds to develop technical and professional skills needed for competitive jobs.

SkillsBuild currently offers three career paths for job seekers; web developer skills, customer service representative skills, and digital foundation skills. The learning paths will soon expand into areas such as cyber-security, analytics and other hot skills and new technologies. The job seekers will develop their technical and professional skills while having an introduction to technologies like Cloud, Artificial Intelligence (AI), data science, and blockchain. 

The program begins with learners on the SkillsBuild platform begin with a personal talent assessment. Then learners receive recommendations on role-based education for specific jobs and include highly sought-after professional skills. By the end of the program, participants who completed their learning path will receive digital credentials or badges that provide evidence of skills gained during the program. They will also take part in a practical learning experience through personalized coaching and experiential learning opportunities with Volunteers from IBM or other partners of SkillsBuild.

Ozlem Yesildere Chairwoman of Yenidenbiz, an NGO helping women to re-enter the workforce who had to quit working due to maternity, age or any other reason:

“We give importance to women's contribution to economic growth as well as women representation in business life. We think that our collaboration with IBM SkillsBuild program to train YenidenBiz candidates who want to re-enter the workforce will be really beneficial for building new digital skills'' 

Mehru Aygul, chairman of the Entrepreneurship Foundation, founded by business people and opinion leaders to support entrepreneurship in Turkey:

 "As Entrepreneurship Foundation our main goal is to promote entrepreneurial culture in Turkey and inspire youth. To extend our scale and impact we are proud to partner with IBM’s SkillsBuild Program to develop skills that will respond the challenges of today’s business."

Regarding the SkillsBuild program, Volkan Sözmen, IBM Turkey Country General Manager, said:

"With the growth of the digital economy, the need of the business world for employment equipped with new skills is increasing every day. The SkillsBuild Program will play an important role in meeting this need and help job seekers improve their competencies. We are pleased to provide a program supporting technical and professional skills development in Turkey in collaboration with YenidenBiz and GIRVAK.”