Investing in Youth and the Future

Throughthe Mehmet Zorlu Foundation, we support successful young people who have difficulty continuing their education due to financial challenges. We have been providing scholarships to 2,000 young people every year, totaling approximately 20,000 scholarships to date. In addition, we are expanding the scope of our support to young people with various projects and programs which are focused on quality education and of which we are a partner.

In addition to the scholarships it provides and the schools and technology centers it has established, the Mehmet Zorlu Foundation also supports the development of qualified human resources, which is a crucial need for the business world, with trainings that will enable students to launch their careers with 21st century competencies. To serve this end, the Foundation supports young people to acquire not only academic and technical knowledge, but also 21st century skills and competencies with the MZV-MEF YetGen 21st Century Competencies Training Program, which is run by MEF University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Erhan Erkut and of which the Foundation has been a stakeholder alongside MEF University since 2016. The program targets university and high school students and offers course subjects such as presentation techniques, Excel, career planning, 21st century literacy, entrepreneurship, social innovation and sustainability.

The Mehmet Zorlu Foundation, supports the Education Reform Initiative(ERG) which aims to establish education reform policies that will ensure social and economic development in Türkiye. Established within Sabancı University in 2003, ERG strives for "quality education for all" and contributes to the creation of inclusive ideation opportunities by bringing different stakeholders together.

Supported by the Mehmet Zorlu Foundation, one of the stakeholders of the Education Reform Initiative, the Teachers Network Project, is launched with a view to supporting the development of teachers as part the efforts in the run-up to the100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye. The project is carried out with the joint support of the Mother Child Education Foundation, the Aydın Doğan Foundation, the Enka Foundation, the Mehmet Zorlu Foundation, the Sabancı Foundation and the Vehbi Koç Foundation.

We are among the supporters of the YGA Summit organized by the Young Guru Academy, founded in 2000 with the aim of raising the leaders of the future At the summit held at Zorlu PSM, a young audience get the chance to hear valuable insights from key figures in the business world and well-known scientists.

We enable young people to gain professional experience with the internship program we named A Step into the Future.

We inspire the dreams of young people and support them across various platforms. With the online internship program, we aim to eliminate the lack of experience, which is the biggest obstacle standing in the way of young people looking for a job, by providing participants with a real work experience.

In 2021, a total of 190 students from 55 universities participated in our 4-week online internship program, which allowed university students to complete their internships during the pandemic. As part of the program we designed for young people to have a head start on their careers, 95 department managers provided the interns with their knowledge and experience and 131 in-house internship coaches helped the students navigate their learning journeys.