Education is key aspect for participation of women in workforce: Aydın Doğan Foundation head

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

The president of the Aydın Doğan Foundation, Hanzade Doğan Boyner, has said the foundation aims to support the education of girls and their participation in the workforce.

Speaking on March 8 during a mentorship program of the Aydın Doğan Foundation, which aims to prepare young women for professional life, Doğan Boyner said the mentorship program was just one of the contributions in this area on. 

She said they aimed to support girls in every period of their educational life, adding that education was a particularly key aspect.

“We see that just 71 percent of university graduate women actively take part in the workforce, according to [Turkish Statistics Institute] TÜİK data. This rate falls to just 25 percent for women who have not graduated from high school, and for illiterate women the workforce participation rate is just 16 percent,” Doğan Boyner said. 

“This shows that education is a key aspect for attendance of women to workforce. We should conduct deeper studies on how to prevent girls from splitting from their education life. As the Aydın Doğan Foundation, we try to evaluate girls’ education life and support them on every step of their education life,” she added.  

Doğan Boyner also noted the importance of digitalization.

“The world is in a never-ending process of digitalization. Technology focused jobs are coming into prominence. We care about the strong existence of girls in these fields and we try to support them to keep pace with change in the future. We will be with our girls with wide-ranging works, from scholarships to mentorships,” she added.

Doğan Boyner said 50,000 students had been provided with education grants as a result of a study by the Doğan Group and its shareholders.   

“We carried our works to the international platform for two years with the occasion of the World Girls Day Conference. We have some scholarships to encourage them to continue their university education. We also support successful students who were continuing their education in law and engineering faculties,” she added.  

Boyner also congratulated all women on the occasion of March 8 International Women’s Day.

“The education of girls is one of the main fields of focus of the Aydın Doğan Foundation with its various social projects. We will continue to act in that way, realizing projects with the help of our shareholders” she said.