Moving from Local to Global

I chose to teach in the Mehmet Necati Vidinli VET school because the disadvantages of the students in the area extended to school, where I witnessed prejudice and a culture lacking aspirations.

I set out to turn this around with my innovative ‘English in the Street’ project, and this is how my VET journey started. My project, which combines technology and role play to improve the English and life skills of disadvantaged students, altered our school’s destiny.

Rather than confining students to classrooms, I have designed ’language cities’ for our students and inspired flexible learning environments which are now used with thousands of students in five countries in Europe.

My school has become a leader in Turkey – it is the first VET school to get the European Quality Label and to have a nomination as one of the top 50 candidates for the Global Teacher Prize.

Having run 52 projects so far, I have received many national and international awards including the Inspiring Teacher Award, Teacher of the Year Award and Global Teacher Prize TOP 50.

Making it from a local to an internationally awarded teacher is not a personal success but an accomplishment I have achieved thanks to all of my wonderful VET students at my side dedicated to my projects.