Pamukova Vocational School

Hello first of all, I am Associate Professor Fatih Sönmez. I am the Director of Pamukova Vocational School. Pamukova Vocational School was established in 2003 in Pamukova district. Especially in the first years of its establishment, there were technical areas such as fruit and vegetable processing technologies, milk processing technology, food technology. One of the reasons for this is that Pamukova district is one of the leading districts of our country in many fruit and vegetable cultivation, especially with quince. Our school is a vocational school founded here with the aim of scientifically training qualified intermediate staff. Pamukova district is located 45 kilometers from Sakarya center. It is located on the main road that is located in the south of both Sakarya and Istanbul, connecting Istanbul to the southern provinces. There are many nearby provinces around it such as Bursa, Eskişehir, Kütahya and Ankara. Transportation to here is provided very easily both by railways and highways. We currently have 6 active programs in our vocational school. Among these are, starting from one of the oldest ones: the Food Technology Program, Foreign Trade Program, Food Quality Control and Analysis Program, Laboratory Technology Program, Pharmacy Services Program, Laborant and Veterinary Technical Programs. We continue our education life with our academic staff, including 1 professor, 3 associate professors, 4 lecturers with a PhD and 11 additional lecturers, who are competent in their fields, have industry experience and have bilateral collaborations. The campus where our Vocational High School is located is quite large, it has a very beautiful area where you can see every shade of green. We have a main building in our campus. In our main building, we have classrooms and a computer lab with about 50 computers. Right next to our main building, we have a very nice and up-to-date laboratory building, which was renovated this year. In our laboratories, we have practice laboratories with food, chemistry, microbiology, anatomy and physiology laboratories where our students can practice. It has a closed area of approximately 200 square meters and 50 students can find the opportunity to practice at the same time very comfortably. In addition, our R&D and analysis laboratories, where both our academicians and students can conduct their scientific studies outside of the classroom, are fully equipped and up-to-date, consisting of 2 parts with a closed area of 100 square meters. In addition, there is a milk processing facility for our students in the food technology program and food quality control program. Here, we have a facility where many dairy products can be observed by our students within their applications and production processes.In addition to these, there are beautiful recreation areas in our campus where our students can sit, socialize and spend their time in a place where the mini football field, basketball court, volleyball court, dining hall and canteen are located. In addition, our library, which is open 24/7 for our students, has many different resources, both in online and physical formats. These are among the possibilities we can offer to our students. We also have summer internship program for 30 days, as in the other vocational schools in Turkey. Furthermore, we also have +1 model which consist of one semester where our students get into an internship program in their own branch - for about 16 weeks - ensuring that they would have a work experience when they graduate.
Especially our graduates in the foreign trade program can work in almost every company in the import-export sector, as can be understood from the program’s name. They can also work in customs brokerage. Our graduates in Food Technology and Food Quality Control and Analysis Program can work in every department of food companies. Especially our graduates in Food Technology can work both in production and laboratory parts. Similarly, our students who graduated from the Quality Control and Analysis Program can work in the laboratories and quality control departments of many different food companies. In addition, our students can open their own businesses after graduation. Also, our students in the Food Technology and Quality Control Program can enter to departments such as nutrition and dietary with vertical transfer exams to complete their undergraduate education. Our foreign trade graduates can also continue their undergraduate education in departments such as economics, business, and international relations with vertical transfer exams. Our graduate students in the Laboratory Technology program can also work in the laboratory parts of almost every sector. Here, they can work in the laboratory parts of many different sectors, from chemistry to health, and other food fields. They can choose to pursue other undergraduate programs such as chemistry, chemical engineering and nursing with vertical transfer exams. Our students who graduate from the Pharmacy Services program can work in all pharmacies, private or public hospitals, medical and pharmaceutical sectors, and they can be transferred to departments such as biology, bioengineering and chemistry with vertical transfer exams. In addition, our students who graduate from the laboratory and veterinary health program can work in all hospitals and animal hospitals that provide veterinary services. Similarly, they can pursue their undergraduate programs in different departments such as biology, chemistry and veterinary medicine with vertical transfer exams. In addition, thanks to the double major programs of our university, our successful students who study in Laboratory Technology or Pharmacy Services can also participate in double major programs in different departments of our Health Services Vocational School, and find opportunities to work in related sectors.
The first thing that students are concerned, during their university selection process, about finding easy job opportunities after graduation and the location of the school they will enter. In this respect, Pamukova District is a very safe district. Our students can safely continue their education here in terms of the campus of our school, the facilities of our school and our relations with the district. In addition, as we have just mentioned, we have very strong opportunities in our vocational school, both technologically and staff wise. It is envisaged that our students who will graduate from here will easily find job opportunities in the relevant sectors. Until now, approximately 4000 graduate students have found job opportunities in their fields in the sectors and they are in contact with us. As can be understood from the name of our university, the application of the +1 education model makes our university very advantageous compared to other universities. The +1 model applications is 7+1 in undergraduate programs and 3+1 in vocational schools. Our students find internships and prove themselves in related sectors for 1 semester, approximately for 16 weeks, rather than just short workplace internships for 30 working days. In this way, as soon as they graduate, they find job opportunities in the workplaces where they have done their own internship. This has a great value. In addition, the fact that our city of Sakarya is centrally located, it provides easy access to big cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and Bursa, which is another factor that brings our university one step forward. As we have just mentioned, the advantages of both our university and our vocational school are quite high. Both our staff and we will continue to support our students in all matters by being in close contact with them throughout their education process and continue to do so after they graduate. We welcome all our students to Pamukova Vocational School, Sakarya University of Applied Sciences.