Students from Bahcesehir University took part on the team to establish the human resources strategy of Unilever, which has held the title of “Most Preferred Employer” in the last 6 years in the fast moving consumer goods industry in Turkey. The expectations of the generation called generation Y from work life, work environment and hiring processes as well as their satisfaction in the work life have contributed to determine how Unilever’s human resources strategy will be shaped in the next five years in this context.
In the project that lasted for about 2 months, Unilever Turkey’s senior management and the Bahcesehir University students worked as a team. The students included the work that they carried out and their suggestions with the perspective of generation Y in the project. At the end of two months, the project was to Unilever Turkey’s management team by the students from BAU in person as led by Steven Gross, Vice President and Board Member in Charge of Human Resources in Turkey, Russia, the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Caucasia. The results of the project will contribute to determining Unilever’s 5-year human resources management strategy.
The excitement felt by Berkay Bas, Irem Caglayan, Ilker Bedenli, Yigit Sen, and Safak Caglar Tosun selected through special interviews under the CO-OP Education Model due to taking part in this global project is summarized as follows by their teammate Irem Caglayan: “We think that being in the same environment as the executives led by Steven Gross and having a say in this important project has made a very big contribution to us in our career journey. My friends and I worked with great excitement, and both endeavored to contribute to Unilever with our generation Y perspective and aimed to broaden our vision taking advantage of the possibilities offered by the project in the best way”.
“The CO-OP Education Model is an education model that has been implemented with success for 8 years by Bahcesehir University, and that aims to bring university and work life together. Junior and senior students of the University are placed at partner firms for long-term internship work for at least 3 months and at most 9 months, and gain work experience by working at firms while still a student. The COOPER placement process is conducted by means of a model that exactly matches with the hiring processes of the firms. The students that apply to the notice published by the CO-OP Directorate are admitted to CO-OP interviews, and are both evaluated and provided mentorship to prepare for the job interview. In addition to working as an intern in departments of the firms, the COOPER implementation is also conducted as generation Y participation in project groups as in the Unilever cooperation as well as Reverse Mentorship.
In the CO-OP Education Model, firms can also hold “Branded Courses” that last throughout a period of education with their own brands and contents. Owing to such courses taught by professionals from the firms, latest developments in industrial topics and rising trends are taught as courses to students, and it is made possible for representatives of the firms to get together with students on a personal basis.
As of today, the University has 1800 CO-OP partners, COOPERS placed at nearly 4,000 firms, and 135 Branded Courses held by the partner firms.
For detailed information: elif.varan@coop.bau.edu.tr
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