- Category Group:
- Achievement Categories
- Category:
- Innovative Achievement in Diversity & Inclusion
- Organization Name:
- Turkcell
- Organization Description:
Turkcell is a technology-based digital telecommunications operator based in Turkey, providing its customers with unique digital services, including voice, messaging, data, and IPTV services over mobile and fixed networks.
Artificial intelligence has become one of the most influential forces shaping economies, labor markets, and social structures. Yet the benefits of this transformation are not distributed equally. Women continue to face systemic barriers in accessing advanced digital skills, participating in technology production, and being represented in high-impact innovation ecosystems.
Without intentional inclusion strategies, technological progress risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than reducing them. For this reason, diversity and inclusion are no longer peripheral values but strategic imperatives for organizations seeking to build resilient, innovative, and socially representative digital futures.
With this perspective, Turkcell launched the "Geleceği Yazan Kadınlar - Artificial Intelligence Program" as an extension of its 12-year-old "Geleceği Yazanlar" learning ecosystem. The initiative was designed to increase women's participation in artificial intelligence not only as learners, but as engineers, product creators, and future technology leaders. Announced on November 18, 2024, the program attracted 17,000 applications from across Türkiye and evolved into a nationwide inclusion platform, enabling women from highly diverse backgrounds to enter advanced technology fields on equal footing.
Corporate Social Responsibility
The program functions as a long-term inclusion model that promotes equitable participation in advanced technology domains. It was designed as a free and open-access initiative across Türkiye, removing financial, geographic, and educational barriers that typically limit women's entry into the technology workforce. In doing so, it directly contributes to narrowing gender-based and socio-economic gaps in digital capability.
Beyond access, the initiative fosters a learning environment where different professional identities, life experiences, and perspectives are valued as strategic assets in technology development. By enabling women to actively shape AI solutions, the program supports the creation of technologies that better reflect societal diversity, reduce bias in digital systems, and respond to a broader spectrum of human needs.
Information Technology
The program was structured as a three-phase learning journey totaling 270 hours of intensive and applied technical training, specifically designed to support women in building advanced IT capabilities and transitioning into high-skill digital roles.
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Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (30 hours):
Covering fundamental AI concepts, this phase was delivered through online courses on the "Geleceği Yazanlar" digital learning platform, enabling more than 5,000 participants to earn certification in a flexible and accessible learning environment.
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Core Technical Skills (120 hours):
255 participants received applied training in Python, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Data Science through live virtual classrooms led by instructors from Turkcell's development partners. This phase ensured that participants gained not only theoretical knowledge but also practical coding and modeling experience aligned with industry standards.
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Specialization (120 hours):
110 participants completed the full 270-hour technical pathway, deepening their expertise in Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, and advanced model development. This phase was also delivered via online virtual classes with experienced trainers, ensuring continuity and equal access regardless of location.
Throughout the program, participants worked with real datasets and production-level algorithms. Each project was supported by mentors from Turkcell's AI teams, providing direct exposure to enterprise technology environments, system integration practices, and scalable solution design. This structure enabled women to transition from learners to active contributors within real technology ecosystems.
Product Design & Development
In parallel with technical training, participants developed AI-based product concepts addressing real-world challenges, progressing through a full product lifecycle from ideation to advanced concept validation. A total of 122 project ideas were generated; 52 advanced to the second stage, 48 reached the advanced phase, 24 became semi-finalists, and 10 projects progressed to the final stage as fully articulated product concepts.
The projects focused on domains with high relevance to social inclusion and quality of life, including healthcare access, educational equity, sustainability, accessibility for people with disabilities, and community-oriented digital services. More than 70 executives and subject-matter experts evaluated the projects based on innovation level, technical robustness, feasibility, and social impact.
Through this process, participants acquired critical product and innovation competencies such as user-centered design, needs assessment, value proposition development, and technology-driven problem solving. This ensured that women were not only technically trained but also equipped to influence how future digital products are conceived, built, and deployed-embedding diversity directly into the innovation pipeline.
Entry Sources & Additional Supporting Information
"Geleceği Yazan Kadınlar Artificial Intelligence Program" is a structured, one-year, comprehensive training initiative. It aims to reach women across Turkey under the umbrella of Turkcell. The projects that have emerged from the program today have the potential to turn into various entrepreneurial opportunities. The successes have been reflected in national media, and the success stories have become an inspiration for all women in Turkey.
By addressing gender imbalance in technology and expanding access to high-value digital competencies, the program establishes a scalable model for embedding diversity and inclusion into the core of digital transformation.
Participants came from a wide range of professions, including teachers, digital forensics specialists, biologists, and occupational safety experts-many with no previous exposure to AI projects. This multidimensional participant profile demonstrates that innovation thrives when diverse cognitive, cultural, and professional perspectives are integrated into technology design processes.