1- To whom/to whom has the company’s best-known consultancy service been provided?
As the Londonbyjada team, we can say that the main topics we provide consultancy on are real estate investments and school selection in London. Of course, the needs of each family can be very different. We generally work with two different types of families. Some of our families decide to move to London with their children, and we support them in every aspect during this process and try to alleviate the difficulties of establishing a life in a new city. Some families decide to send their children to boarding school. With our education consultants, we help them manage this transition process in the best way by finding the right school that best suits their children’s academic and personal skills, where they can be happy and one step closer to their ideals. We continue our communication with our students when they come to England and start their new schools, and sharing the university selection processes and even graduations of the students we met during their high school years with them is the most enjoyable part of our job. Every family that reaches us and asks for support is very valuable to us. We offer professional support to individuals and institutions who contact us to rent a house, choose a summer camp for children, buy a house, or study at a high school or university in London. We are very happy to see that the Londonbyjada family is growing day by day with the people or institutions we provide consultancy services to.

2- What are the main reasons why Turkish families send their children to study abroad?
The British education system has actually been very popular in the world for years. One of the most important features of the British education system, where the school starting age is 4, is the academic program offered, and another can be summarized as supporting children’s personal behavior and personality development from an early age. Teachers welcome children at the school gate from the first day they start school; I think that habits such as students making eye contact with their teachers and shaking their hands, entering the school by saying good morning, and shaking hands with their teachers at the school gate after school in the evening and saying goodbye to the school have made a big difference in the British education system.

During the 6-year primary education period, children receive education in English, Mathematics, Science, art, music and sports. Encouraging children to play at least one musical instrument; Other prominent features of the British education system are that children of all age groups do sports in open areas, regardless of cold, rain and mud, and that emphasis is placed on French lessons and foreign languages in primary school years.

In the British system, the emotional development of children is also given great importance. So much so that the separation of children into groups according to their academic skills begins at the age of 6-7. This method is frequently used, especially in English and Mathematics classes. Since children are grouped according to their personal skills and are in the same group with other children with similar learning speeds, they can feel better and more comfortable, thus making a very important progress in developing their self-confidence at a young age. This approach is parallel to the Growth Mind set concept, which Professor Carol Dweck has been advocating for years and has written many books on. I would like to point out here that families should definitely read books about this approach, which is seen as the key to success, and that they can support their children by using these methods even in daily life.

We see that the most popular period for Turks who came to the UK to study during their high school years is the 13 and 16 age groups when transitioning to the British education system. When we ask about the reasons for this choice, families generally share with us that the deep-rooted history of the British education system and the opportunities offered by schools impressed them greatly.

The structure of the British education system and the opportunities offered by schools, as well as the proximity of England to Turkey, approximately 6 different Istanbul-London flights per day, and the increasing importance of English as a foreign language in the world and in business life, can be considered among the main reasons for this change.

3- Turkey has been suffering from education/curriculum issues for many years… What should Turkey do about this issue?
One of the most important issues that we observe from the outside and that we wish to improve is the importance given to foreign languages. As we mentioned before, the increasing importance given to English, which is the most widely used language in the world and the most dominant language on the internet, and the increase in time devoted to learning English will broaden the horizons of our students and make them stronger in research and learning. Apart from foreign languages, we also believe that a more research-based learning model will provide our children with much more useful information than the memorization and test-taking model. In this type of learning model, children’s ability to remember the useful information they have learned and use it in life will improve and our children will be more successful as individuals.

4- Is there a country that Turkey can take as an example in terms of education?
We think that the British education system is an exemplary education system for the reasons we mentioned before. We believe that children should be given an education that highlights their personal skills and abilities as well as academic education. We believe that children raised in this education model will be able to make healthier decisions in their university and even career choices.

5- The biggest problem in the country is unemployment and this is generally the reason for going to university in Turkey. What path do you think parents should follow?
The answer to this question is again based on the education model. The earlier the education system can discover children’s personal skills and talents and provide an educational content that nurtures them; Children’s development and the opportunity to make career choices that will be beneficial to society will be equally possible.

Considering that the future of many business lines and professions is in danger in the “Technology and Machinery” age we are in; We can also better understand the importance of the education system being based on personal and individual life skills. It is inevitable that the best approach would be to chart a path for young people, especially by prioritizing jobs and professions that cannot be replaced by machines and that have high human aspects.

6- Almost everyone in Turkey wants to send their children to university. Is this the same situation abroad? Do you think this will reduce the quality of the concept of university?
Being a university graduate is a very important criterion in every country today, but just being a university graduate is no longer enough and the success of university education is measured in direct proportion to how well it prepares its students for real life. At this point, I would like to share with you some quotes from Bernard Marr’s article in Forbes magazine.

Two types of information are shared with students during their university years.

Hard Skills mean your professional knowledge on the job. The basic knowledge you know about engineering, accounting or purchasing and use to run the business are your Hard Skills.
Of course, you should also include general skills such as communication skills, teamwork and problem solving. These skills are called “Soft Skills”.

A student’s success, knowledge and application methods in Soft Skills are among the main features that will distinguish him from other candidates in business life. Among these skills, we can count the following;

• Communication
• decision making
• personal motivation
• Leadership
• Ethical values
• Observation and adaptation
• Vision and imagination
• Team work
• Creativity – problem solving
• Time management

7- What is Turkey’s situation against other countries?
We can see that there are many opportunities for individual development in Turkey, which is very pleasing. However, we think that efforts should be accelerated to expand these opportunities in more schools and make them accessible to larger masses.

8- What is the status of education abroad?
As far as we can see, awareness on these issues is higher abroad. In England, serious cooperation is being made with schools to determine the needs of our changing world thanks to the necessary curriculum changes and to reach the new generations. Within the education system, great importance is given to the development of personal and social skills.

9- What are your advice to parents about education?
The most important advice we can give parents about education is to follow the changes in the developing world on online platforms. Our main advice is to read the articles on these subjects, which we will soon publish in Turkish on the Londonbyjada website, attend social skills seminars if possible, and prepare our children for life in the best possible way by reinforcing the missing subjects in the curriculum at home. Likewise, when it comes to English education, they can benefit from the short language programs offered by Londonbyjada in the summer periods or the English education services provided through the Londonbyjada online platform.

10- What is your advice to those interested in education in Turkey?
Professor working at Stanford University. As Carol Dweck stated, creating environments where our children can constantly develop; I think it should be our responsibility to not expect everything from the school curriculum, to support parents and to work to create Turkish materials by following the innovations in education in the world and to deliver this information to as wide an audience as possible through as many channels as possible.