Literacy
- The literacy rate in Turkey is 81%, an increase from 58% in 1970, as compared to a current 85% in Portugal, and 95-100% in Western and Northern European countries.
13% of the 20-24 year olds are enrolled in university education, as compared to 18% in Portugal, and 24-43% in Western and Northern European countries.
51% of the relevant age group is enrolled in secondary education, as compared to 53% in Portugal, and 78-100% in Western and Northern European countries.
- English fluency
- No precise figure is available as for the percentage of the population that speaks English. Yet, it is estimated
that 1 in 500 Turks speak English, French and/or German.
English-speaking Turks living in Turkey are in general not fluent in the English language. Most of them
have trouble making correct sentence constructs, and pronouncing sounds such as "th". The reason behind these
facts is that the Turkish language does not support the same sentence constructs and does not use
the same sounds as in English.
- Computer-related higher education
- Most universities offer computer science and/or MIS majors. Several have computer engineering programs.
The schools that specialize in teaching computer software are numerous.
- Software professionals
- More and more Turkish students enroll in computer engineering and computer science programs, both in Turkey and in the United States. Also, an important number of individuals enroll each year in technical institutes to graduate as professional co
mputer programmers or computer technicians.
- Emigration (brain-drain) of computer professionals
- Turkish people who leave their country for studying or for another motive tend to return back to Turkey at some point in time. In particular, those students who enroll in computer majors abroad know that there exist great job opportunities for th
em in Turkey. Though the demand for computer professionals is extremely high in almost all developed and developing countries, demand in Turkey is particularly amazing due to the weak supply of such professionals. Brain-drain of computer specialist
s is therefore low, and does not constitute a problem for Turkey.
- Immigration of computer professionals
- Many of the Turkish computer professionals working in Turkey have studied abroad, especially in the United States. Though this is no immigration of computer professionals, it sure is an importation of brain power. True immigration of foreign comp
uter professionals in Turkey occurs at foreign firms' subsidiaries/operations in that country. Also, many Middle Eastern students who graguate from computer-related majors in Turkish universities choose to stay in Turkey, for the job opportunities there a
re much more attractive than in their own countries. Pakistanis and Lebanese are examples of such immigrants.
- The computer society
- Organizations such as the Turkish Informatics Society (Türk Bilgisayarcilik Dernegi) -- a professional organization--, as well as several computer clubs at universities are concentrated in the metropolitan areas of the country.
An ever-increasing number of specialized computer magazines can be found in Turkey. In addition to several fully local publications, one can find Turkish versions of major U.S. computer magazines such as PC magazine.
- R&D in information technology
- Most of the IT research and development in Turkey is done by Tübitak (the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Institution) and by the larger universities such as Middle East Technical University, Bilkent
University and Istanbul Technical University. Some R&D is also done by private foreign firms' Turkish
subsidiaries such as Alcatel, Northern Telecom and Siemens.
The Turkish government has committed in 1993 to increase the level of R&D in both the public and the private sectors.
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