The Turkish software developer army approaches 300,000 people

Projects implemented to create the human resources needed in Türkiye's advanced technology fields and to increase its global competitive power are bearing fruit.

In this context, with the contribution of provided training and talent transfers, the number of software developers has rapidly increased. As of the end of last year, it is estimated that there are 245,000 active software developers and 40,000 freelance developers in Türkiye. The total number of developers in the country is expected to approach 300,000 with recent additions.

Various projects are also being implemented to meet the demand for software developers. The roadmap in this field was drawn with the "Industrial Development, Support for Production and Investments Program".

The program focuses on various projects ranging from talent transfer to inventory creation, establishment of academies, development of open-source software products, and licensing.

Software ecosystem is growing

One of the projects implemented is the Türkiye Software Inventory Project. The aim of the project is to obtain data on firms, workforce, and products in the software field to make data-based decisions in processes such as policy and strategy document formation and to enable firms to benefit more effectively from government support and incentives. While two phases of the three-phase project have been completed, the coding of the portal is expected to be completed and put into operation in the final phase.

In order to increase domestic added value in the software field and reduce security risks, it is also planned to develop an open-source software ecosystem and train qualified human resources in this field. Within this scope, online training programs will be implemented, and an education model and competency assessment system will be established for this purpose.

Artificial intelligence courses on campus

Programs have also been implemented through university-industry collaboration to expand the "software army".

Within this scope, "Industry on Campus" and "Artificial Intelligence Specialization" programs are being implemented under the National Technology Academy.

With the "Industry on Campus Program", which is based on high added value, sustainable, win-win philosophy for all stakeholders, and university-industry collaboration, it is aimed to prepare university students for business life by bringing them together with competent individuals from the industry.

The program, which was implemented for the first time in the spring semester of 2022-2023 with the participation of 20 universities and companies, provided training to more than 1,500 students. In the fall semester of 2023-2024, courses were given to 4,250 students in partnership with 78 companies and 65 universities.

The "Artificial Intelligence Specialization Program" was also launched to provide technical expertise needed to improve product and service qualities in the industry and strengthen human resource capacities.

Within the scope of the program, which consists of basic training, specialization training, graduation project, and internship periods, real-time data processing and model development, parallel processing, data harmonization, data labeling automation and fusion, database and cloud systems, and data processing and integration expertise training are provided.

Cybersecurity product and technology projects will be developed

The Türkiye Open Source Platform aims to develop exportable open-source software products, reduce software costs incurred from licensing for the public and private sectors, and increase the number of companies and entrepreneurs offering qualified software developers and open-source software support services.

Programs based on national solutions are also being implemented by the Ministry of Industry and Technology to eliminate threats in the country's cybersecurity field.

In this context, cybersecurity product and technology projects involving public research institutions and universities are being developed to benefit from the cybersecurity ecosystem and to develop products and solutions with higher added value. It is planned to share the outputs of the projects with the cybersecurity ecosystem as open source code and to conduct end-to-end security, integration, and functionality tests.

Russians lead in talent transfer

The "software army" is also being expanded through talent transfer. In this context, while 1,702 applications were received, 1,598 of them were evaluated positively with the expectation that they would contribute to the Turkish technology ecosystem.

The top three occupations with the most applications were software designer with 440 people, software developer with 377 people, and software tester with 144 people. The highest number of applications, 833, was made for Russian nationals.