The Arkas Academy Project began as a dream of Arkas Holding Chairman Lucien Arkas. The project was completed and went into operation with the purpose of documenting the knowledge and experience of Arkas Holding, which spans more than a century, and pass it on to its employees.
More than 23 books were written over two years as part of the project and many of our experts took formidable training in order to become trainers themselves. So how did such a huge dream become a reality and what stages did it go through?
The first step of the Arkas Academy Project was to bring together a team who could bring the project to life. The team consisted of Project Sponsor Timuçin Pekar, Project Leader Şengül Atalay, Project Managers Çiğdem Erdoğan and Selin Gökdemir, Project Consultant Anadolu University Professor Dr. Ali Şimşek, training designers Çağrı Gülsoy, Eray Özkalay, Esra Demir, Gökmen Çakmak, Ömer Faruk Tanrıverdi, Sıtkı Barkın Sarı, Şebnem Karatepe and Tevfik Barış Temirhanoğulları.
After the project team was formed, the module topics were chosen based on needs. Experts and designers were gathered to work together on these modules. It was at this stage of preparing the modules that they were given the first indications about what stages the project was going to go through. After becoming better acquainted with the project at this meeting, everyone had a clearer picture in their mind and the goals became more definite. However, completing the picture was not as easy as everyone thought. We had access to very respected people who had devoted many years to the company and we wanted them to cram their experiences into a book. Although there were certain points where we had difficulty convincing these experts, everyone was pleased with the final result. When preparing the content, the designers continued to talk with the experts to get help finalizing the content. Sometimes we had to start all over when we were almost finished, sometimes a chapter had to be completely rewritten, and sometimes the work progressed without any problems. In the end however, we finished writing the content and sent it to the management for approval.
The next stage was a conference meeting. All the experts and the project team were at this meeting, which had the goal of making sure that the same concept was not taught in different modules and to ensure consistency between the subjects.
After we received approval from the management and after the experts agreed on the subject headings, the designer transformed the raw information in the content into a suitable design. The designer was now in the lead. Their work was difficult and they knew that the design would never be final. They kept this in mind as they began the design process. Although it may appear that this stage was independent of the experts, it really was not. The designers still worked in conjunction with the experts and the project consultant to enrich the content using strategies that would make the work-related training more memorable. The training strategies used in the sessions made them more interesting.
As the modules were being designed, the experts underwent a 7-day training process themselves, consisting of 5 days of theory and 2 days of practicum administered by the project consultant, so they could become trainers.
The next step was to see if the theoretical design of the modules was going to actually work out as planned. This stage was very exciting for the whole team. The pilot training sessions were environments in which the experts tested themselves and saw whether the books were sufficient. The training sessions were given by experts in that topic to Arkas employees who had little or no knowledge of that subject. This was a test for the training sessions. During the pilot training sessions, the trainees provided feedback indicating that these sessions were very beneficial and that they met the training need perfectly. This proved to us once more that Arkas Academy was a worthwhile project.
The training sessions had been held, but there was still more work to do. After the pilot training sessions were held, the recommendations of the trainees, the design team and the project consultant were taken into consideration for the next stage of the project. Each module was re-evaluated, any deficiencies were taken care of and improvements were made wherever necessary. After this stage was over, the whole team began to feel that we were getting quite close to the final result.
Next, an expert editor helped to correct the language in each module, followed by a final check with the design team and approval from the management. Finally, the modules were converted to print-ready PDF format and given to the printer.
We thoroughly enjoyed every stage of the project. Now it is time to bring the project and our dream to life! We look forward to sharing with you the fruits of this project, which is a first for Arkas. An academy is a place that learns, teaches, becomes better as it shares and that is always alive.
The Arkas Academy Project showed us how much can be done when you have the support of respected and experienced people who are working together. We are eternally grateful to everyone who contributed to this project. We hope that we will be able to accomplish even better projects for Arkas in the future...
This is Arkas Academy: the embodiment of a dream and over 100 years of experience.