The Western Black Sea Career Fair (BATIKAF) was hosted by our University on 16-17 December 2024 with the cooperation of 17 stakeholder universities from 8 provinces in the region, various public institutions and organisations, professional chambers and non-governmental organisations. Our Career Planning Commission organises 3 ‘Career Talks’ every year. This year, Career Talk-I, Career Talk-II and Career Talk-III events were organised within BATIKAF, aiming to support the career development of both our nursing department students and all university students.

Our first Career Interview event was organised by the President of Köroğlu Search and Rescue Association, Mr. Hakan ESEN, who shared his experiences in domestic and international health and social aid activities, and  Dr. Dr. Arzu AKMAN YILMAZ moderated the event which was held in the Economics and Administrative Sciences Conference Hall at 14.00-15.00 hours. Mr ESEN shared his experiences on earthquake protection and being a health worker in an earthquake, and talked about the voluntary health services they carried out in the African region and the importance of volunteer work. With these very valuable experiences, our students were inspired by him to participate in volunteer work and provide assistance to groups with special needs while realising their professional careers.

The second event held within this scope, the panel on ‘Getting to Know and Reflect İzzet Baysal and İzzet Baysal Foundation’ was moderated by Prof. Dr. Arzu ÖZCAN İLÇE and held in the Blue Hall of the Culture Centre between 15.00-15.50. In the panel, Mr Fatih YAMANER, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of İzzet Baysal Foundation and Mr Mustafa YAMAN, Member of the Board of Trustees of İzzet Baysal Foundation, shared the establishment of the Foundation and their stories of joining the Foundation, and talked about the purpose of the Foundation, its activities and the personal characteristics of the late philanthropist İzzet Baysal. We hope that the industriousness, honesty, farsightedness, frugality and philanthropy of İzzet Baysal, the founder of Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University and İzzet Baysal Foundation, will guide young people who are in the process of building their careers.

In the ‘Entrepreneurship Platform’ panel, commercial and social entrepreneurship issues were discussed. The panelists in the field of commercial entrepreneurship were Mr Hasan Aksoy, the owner and Chairman of the Board of Directors of BOLÇİ Çikolata A.Ş. and Ms Ayşegül AYATA AKTÜRK, the owner of AA Tennis Academy; and in the field of social entrepreneurship, Mr Nahit ABAK, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bolu Donors Foundation. The panel was moderated by Prof. Dr. Arzu ÖZCAN İLÇE and held in the Green Hall of the Congress Centre between 15.50-17.15. Distinguished panelists Mr. AKSOY and Mr. AYATA AKTÜRK shared how they became entrepreneurs, the difficulties they experienced in their entrepreneurial experiences and their advice to students on the subject of commercial entrepreneurship, while Mr. ABAK presented examples of social projects supported by Bolu Donors Foundation and encouraged students to participate in social projects, to produce projects and to spare time for social entrepreneurship.

Many students participated in the events and at the end of the events, all panellists were given a certificate of appreciation and the participating students were given a certificate of participation. We would like to thank all faculty members, staff and students who contributed to the realisation of BATIKAF24 and Career Talk events.