Edirne Maturation Institute was founded in August, 2022 in Edirne, Turkey, as an institute/education centre working in the field of adult education. Our organisation is one of the youngest of the 30 institutes, affiliated to the Ministry of National Education, all around Turkiye. It focuses mainly on two actions – searching and developing traditional arts and crafts work, designing and producing new products that derive from the old tradition and teaching these traditional handicrafts to new generations.

Our mission is to search and protect the original items of Edirne Rumelia and Balkan culture, redesign and produce them on a universal scale by adhering to the originals, market our products with an entrepreneurial spirit, and transfer works and products of our culture to future generations. We employ 35 master trainers specialised in different fields of traditional arts and crafts. While working on different projects and producing the best examples of their arts and crafts, they also teach their trainees the intricacies of their work. Our institute provides training in leathercraft, ceramic and glass technology, gastronomy (Turkish cuisine), fashion design, couture, embroidery, decorative handicrafts and traditional Turkish art with a relentless drive for innovation and promotes national and European values at local, regional, national and international levels. 50 adult learners from the age of 18 and above attend our programmes to learn traditional Turkish arts and crafts.

In addition to a manager and two assistant managers in the administration we have 20 employees working for the research and development, design and production, and promotion and marketing departments. The research and development department searches for traditional arts and crafts works of Edirne Rumelia and Balkan culture, design and production department redesigns, modernises and produces new items whereas promotion and marketing department allows our products to be seen and known and offers them for sale, especially on online sales platforms. We have two main themes we work on for the coming two years- one of them is gastronomy and the other one is cultural heritage.

Our vision is to be a leading organisation in the field by constantly promoting innovation as well as developing production and training to meet the economic, social and cultural challenges of today’s world. Our ultimate goal is to bring the work of our institution one step closer to EU quality standards. We are determined to promote innovative developments in education, production and marketing through the projects and trainings we implement locally, as well as the active participation in European projects and training initiatives. In this regard, our organisation intends to cooperate with organisations from other countries to integrate new procedures, methodologies, and improved processes for the recognition and validation of professional competences. We would like to get involved in projects working on socio-cultural development, sustainable development, environment, digital competence and digitalization, e-commerce and e-marketing. We are willing to collaborate with public administration bodies, associations, cooperatives, private organisations, scientific institutions, universities and individuals. Since it is a newly founded organisation Edirne Maturation Institute has no experience in Erasmus + programme. But our staff has participated in or coordinated Erasmus+ projects for organisations they had worked for in the past.

We can contribute to projects with very good practical knowledge and innovative ideas. We are willing to share our experience and know-how with other partners and learn from them. All staff will be up to date on all tasks and activities of the projects we participate. When some of these people leave the team, other members of the team are highly qualified to continue working without problems.