The building, construction and design sectors market is growing rapidly both in Turkey and its surrounding areas.

Turkey has a rapidly growing domestic market thanks to its young population, workforce and the investment potential of foreign countries; it also has a large foreign trade volume thanks to the countries in the surrounding geography that need investment.

Market Situation

The market for the building, construction and design sectors is growing rapidly both in Turkey and its surroundings. Turkey has a rapidly growing domestic market thanks to its young population, workforce and foreign countries seeing it as an investment opportunity; it also has a foreign trade volume thanks to countries in the surrounding geography that need investment. With these features, it has become an important market for both hot money and direct foreign capital investments. Turkey is one of the leading countries among developing economies.

In the surrounding region; there are countries with very rich natural resources and rapidly increasing incomes such as Iraq, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and due to restructuring in other Turkic Republics and countries in North Africa, the market in the mentioned sectors is growing rapidly. In the construction sector, countless new projects and products are needed in these markets and this creates great opportunities. In order to evaluate these opportunities and contribute to the market, qualified employees who are specialized in both theory and practice in different disciplines are needed. Turkey, which aims to reach 500 Billion Dollars of export and 2 Trillion Dollars of National Income in 2023, needs individuals with added value creation skills, good designers, experts who will produce technical solutions and qualified brainpower to plan the productive working conditions of the future in order to achieve these goals.

In the current situation, although job opportunities are increasing, the ability of active companies in the sector to do business cannot reach satisfactory results in evaluating the opportunities. One of the main reasons for this is that the qualified workforce of the companies, and therefore their capacities, are not sufficient to take on most of the incoming projects. When we look at qualified project managers in particular, it is seen that the number is far below the need.

The business world needs qualified people.

The term qualified person includes not only qualified labor but also qualified entrepreneurs.

Needs

Qualified person

Turkey needs qualified people in the business world. The term qualified people does not only include qualified labor, but also qualified entrepreneurs. The need for material knowledge, production knowledge, technology knowledge, design knowledge, management knowledge, and the need to train people and institutions that can coordinate all of these are evident. The project-based business partnership model is a flexible structure that can be applied to countless projects at once, but in order to achieve success, it requires project managers and employees assigned to their subordinates to fulfill their duties flawlessly. The biggest problem at this point is the lack of sufficient managers who can follow a job from beginning to end and in every area. In addition to being specialized in a basic field, these people must also be qualified to foresee and supervise any problems that may arise from other disciplines required by the job. In terms of the construction sector, these disciplines include design, production, law, administrative affairs, accounting, finance, marketing and purchasing. In addition to increasing the qualified workforce, the accessibility of this workforce is also another need of the sector. The difficulty of smaller businesses in employing qualified workforce in particular seriously limits the competitiveness of these businesses. The withdrawal of an educated and even experienced group from business life due to various reasons such as not being able to set their own hours or not being able to work from the place they want is a deficiency both for the sector and for individuals who would want to work under different conditions. This group, especially educated mothers, can adapt to the changing business life more easily, while improving their own lives and contributing to the sector.

Interoperability of architecture, engineering and construction disciplines

Of course, the issue of ensuring efficiency in business processes does not only concern companies or investors. Many studies are being conducted on this subject worldwide. It is accepted that achieving this efficiency in the construction industry sector, in other words, reaching the right result in the time-quality-price triangle, depends on different disciplines working together in harmony. The first condition for efficient work is for elements with different backgrounds working together to have a common language that will ensure correct communication between them. This need led to the emergence of Building Information Modeling (BIM). The Data Modeling (IFC) studies were initiated in 1994 as an international collaboration called buildingSmart with the aim of ensuring that architecture, engineering and construction branches work in harmony with a common language. The synchronization of different disciplines with each other is possible with the common use of project management tools and the simultaneous use of project documents on the same platform. This modeling is called “Interoperability in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction Industry” (AEC). The importance given to the subject, especially in developed countries, is increasing every day. BIM standards are rapidly becoming a mandatory application, especially in large projects, especially in the public sector. Finally, ISO has made this standard an international standard (ISO 16739:2013). However, these applications are still not widespread and it is a fact that there is a significant need for training and application in this regard.

Trainings for industrial and artistic productions

Production is divided into two as Industrial Production and Artistic Production. Artistic Production requires artistic knowledge and skills in addition to productions made with machines and qualified labor, and therefore has higher added value. Qualified products with high added value increase profitability. The most basic need in industrial production is the effective use of production machines such as CAT and CAM, which use project and product information in 3-dimensional form. The main problem at this point is not the good use of machines, but the ability to make 3-dimensional production drawings and preparations for complex works that will ensure the efficient operation of the machines. The usability of efficiency-enhancing programming languages ​​that will enable these drawings to be perceived by the machines is another aspect of this problem. In artistic production, the main thing is to provide individuals with artistic skills with practical training that will enable them to produce in accordance with their business needs. A formation in art workshops where they can develop their skills and learn to use different materials will make a difference. Skill is a quality acquired by practicing with real masters. Therefore, the way to be successful in artistic production is through education and working.

Strengthening the connection between academia and business life

From the perspective of the education sector, the speed of developments in technology and design and the increasing interaction between these fields have revealed the need to update the curricula. Indeed, postponing this update will lead to a widening gap between academic life and professional life. These rapid developments also cause educational institutions to experience difficulties in terms of equipment investments, which are in a constant process of change. While higher education programs focusing on specific subjects experience difficulties in terms of new equipment, programs established with broad discipline names offer career directions with twists and turns in terms of content. Compared to academia, business life, whose goal is to generate income, is obliged to be more intertwined with innovations. Due to this necessity, it would not be wrong to emphasize that research activities in the fields of design and technology have recently developed more within the body of professional institutions. The biggest problem of programs that do not aim for a diploma or certificate is that the frequency of courses is not frequent enough for individuals to internalize the information. In a system consisting of classic 13 weeks and 3-4 hours of lessons per week, although individuals can acquire information on the subject, it is quite difficult for them to acquire equipment on a subject during this process. ASANTEPARK modular education programs are not designed as an alternative to existing higher education curricula in the field of design and technology, but rather as parallel and complementary.

The need to design work environments for future generations

The expectations of the new generations, who were born in the years of rapid technological change and grew up surrounded by technology at a young age, do not match the expectations of the previous generations from business life. This generation, which constitutes the young population of our country, is defined as a generation that is self-confident and has an optimistic perspective, knows how to get what they want, can cope with stress, is open to learning and questions. This generation, which has important positive aspects such as being able to do things together, being success-oriented and being prone to entrepreneurship, also has characteristics that contradict the current business life conditions such as being sensitive about working hours, opposing authority, criticizing different views and loving to be independent. It is inevitable that work environments will eventually change and evolve according to the characteristics of the new generation.