Vocational School of Justice
MENTORING ENTREPRENEURS
Young entrepreneurs are steering their projects through Technology Transfer Office of Izmir University of Economics (IUE). The youth, who wants to implement their project, received mentorship support as part of “The Youth Entrepreneurship Support Program”, co-organized by Izmir University of Economics and Izmir Institute of Technology.
20 young entrepreneurs talked about their projects on different subject areas such as people with disabilities, child abuse, virtual markets, animation, etc. at the meeting that took place at Izmir Chamber of Commerce. After the mentor evaluation, the projects will be submitted to a program that supports the entrepreneurs with 150 thousand TL grant as part of TUBITAK’s 1512 Multiphase Entrepreneurship Grant Program.
IUE Vice Rector, Prof. Dr. Murat Aşkar, stated that young entrepreneurs had projects both in social and creative industry areas, and they needed guidance along the way. Prof. Dr. Murat Aşkar said, “The youth is developing projects on a wide range of areas including robotic hand development, agricultural implementations, protection of children, establishing a social meeting platform, etc. We do not want these projects to stay as ideas. Therefore, we guide and mentor the young entrepreneurs. We hope to help them with all stages, from idea to design process, from scientific technology to production. We believe that the future prosperity of our country lies in entrepreneurship. We take all the necessary steps with them to bring their ideas to life”.
Emin Okutan, Founder of Viveka Incubation Center, who mentored the youth, stated that finding solutions to social problems was at the heart of the young entrepreneurs’ ideas. Okutan said, “These young entrepreneurs have very creative projects that can be implemented, however, they come across problems in carrying these ideas into practice. That is where we come in. We help them find more innovative solutions when they face problems.”