Director's Message
Welcome to the PSG-CAPS website!
We are all familiar with the unhappiness and regret bound up in expressions like ‘if I knew then what I do now, I wouldn’t have studied law’ or ‘I wouldn’t have been an engineer, I would’ve worked in the education sector’. Many of us frequently hear such phrases from people around us. Suitable career choices are not necessarily those which look perfect on paper. In reality, ‘perfect’ but unsuitable career decisions can cause a chain reaction of unhappiness in many other domains of life. Degree courses are changed, left uncompleted or unfulfilling careers are put up with, resulting in a waste of valuable resources such as time, effort and money. To plan and construct a career requires understanding internal dynamics we are unaware of, as well as understanding influential factors in and out of our control. It is a pivotal process in determining our sense of happiness, success and fulfillment and should thus be given ample care, consideration and time. Appropriately constructing a career to prevent the future waste of resources relies on nurturing awareness from a scientific, wholistic and systematic perspective...
Dear Students,
During your high school years, in addition to the pressure of academic success, forming your own identity and being accepted as an individual, you have the responsibility to carve your career path. I invite you to join CAPS workshops to reify and detangle abstract concepts (which could otherwise remain tangled for a lifetime) and learn to understand yourselves better. Learn that there is no “personality” to excavate, but rather, that your beliefs, values and decisions determine who you are, that your brains’ plasticity and cognitive ability does not end with your childhood but remains flexible throughout your life. During our work together, you will investigate how your instincts, emotions, needs, beliefs and values manifest themselves in your attitudes and behaviours. This increased awareness will not only allow you to think critically and objectively about your career decision, but will have a positive impact on your decision making ability in various aspects of life. It will encourage you to examine your internal attitude-emotion-thought-behaviour cycle.
You will spend approximately 80,000 hours in your chosen career path. The few hours you spend today will contribute to the likelihood that you will spend many happy, successful and fulfilling hours in the future. Don’t forget that your career is the best way of expressing yourself to the world.
Dear Parents,
You undoubtedly invest a lot into the futures of your children. Do you want to work with them as a team and become effective career and life coaches? Can career choice be left to chance? Is it enough to make decisions based solely on university entrance exam results?
We created both online and in-person training programmes, workshops and one on one sessions that you can attend with your child, partner or alone. Together we can create an environment for your child to explore what happiness and success mean to them and understand that these definitions remain subjective and evolve throughout their lifetime. Let's support them through their emotional and mental turmoils so that they can understand themselves and live life by responding rather than reacting. Let's take concrete steps to nurture their personal development and strengthen their chances of making suitable career decisions.
Your child is unique; let’s guide them in creating themselves.
Dear Teachers,
Would you like to support your students during the difficult and confusing career planning process by considering real life dynamics? Whilst nurturing your professional development in various areas, the training programmes we developed can enable you to guide your students in seeing the details within the big picture, relating neuroscientific evidence to their own lives, learning the skills and knowledge necessary for navigating their careers and becoming clearer in their own minds.
On top of this, with the Yildiz Teknik University-Continuing Education Center certified ‘Careers Education and Guidance in High Schools’ training programme, which was developed in light of the educational paradigm shift, you can learn the practical classroom activities that are based on recent research findings in education, psychology and counselling.
I would like to highlight that we are not here to promise a guarantee of absolute success, happiness and a perfect career for students. However, we guide them in taking responsibility to unlock their potential and collaborate with their parents and teachers in order to make suitable decisions for their future.
I wish that all your hard work and effort throughout the career decision process will come back as happiness and success on your own terms.
Here’s to a journey of lifelong learning with PSG-CAPS…
Warmest regards,
Püren Savaş Gedikoğlu
Director
Meet the Team
Püren Savaş Gedikoğlu, BAEd MBA
Management and Educational Consultant
If I knew then, what I do now!
We developed CAPS Career Assessment and Planning System from a scientific, holistic and systematic perspective for adolescents and families who really know what they want and also interested in designing themselves.
Bilgesu Başkurt, MSc.
Psychological Counselor
“We understand the students and their families who try to answer the questions such as “Which occupation I should choose?”, “In which career areas I would be happy?”, “How my future should be?” with uncertainty and anxiety. We provide concrete strategies for effective career construction…
Details Püren Savaş Gedikoğlu Educational Consultant I graduated from the Çukurova University, Faculty of Education in 1986 and Istanbul University Graduate School of Business in 1987. Whilst completing the Marketing MBA Programme in Istanbul University School of Business, I was working as an English language teacher in Kabataş High School. I established PSG Education in 1989, supporting young people and their families during the education planning process. In 2002, I moved to the UK with my family. Having completed an MBA at the University of Southampton in 2003, I continued working there to manage projects aimed at improving its educational processes. I later worked as a teacher and attended various training courses such as CELTA, Career Guidance in Schools, Transactional Analysis and Group Facilitation. Since 2006, I have been a governor in Thornden Secondary School (2006-2016) and Barton Peveril College (2016-present). We developed CAPS from a scientific and holistic perspective after a comprehensive and detailed research and development process in Turkey and the UK. Due to the paradigm shift in education, creation of school’s ‘career offices’ and emphasis on personal development in the career curriculum, there is an ever-increasing need for professionals within the field to be more widely trained. Our certificate programmes were designed in response to this demand.
BAEd MBA
. Canan Altunal Administrative Affairs Manager I completed my undergraduate degree in Business in 1996. Since 1996, I have been responsible for education abroad programmes and administrative affairs in PSG Education. The motivation and energy with which we have connected with thousands of students and their families, ultimately making a positive difference in their lives, has been unwavering throughout the years. We believe that students have much more to gain from the education abroad programmes on top of improving their language skills. Therefore, we combined our PSG England education programmes with CAPS. We aim at supporting students in the career construction process through a holistic personal growth perspective. Dr. Özgür Çelenk I completed an MSc in Cross-Cultural Psychology in the UK and obtained my doctoral degree in the Netherlands in the same field. I joined the PSG-CAPS Team in 2016 in order to support young people going through the career planning process, aiming to help them overcome obstacles and tolerate the uncertainty and challenges that I personally experienced during my own career decision making process. A wide range of pilot studies investigating various career-related dynamics were conducted and these were integral to the development of CAPS. We applied robust statistical analyses to the data from these studies and, in light of our findings, developed questionnaires. Our main goal for the CAPS workshops targeting students, parents and educators is to help young people take responsibility and use their potential in the most effective way. We also aim to support students in collaborating and cooperating with their parents and teachers to make the most suitable career decision. We dedicate ourselves to support young people, families and educators during the long and multifaceted career process. Bilgesu Başkurt, MSc. I completed my BA and MSc in Psychological Counseling and Guidance at Yıldız Technical University. I have come to realise that students strive to be extremely successful in their personal and professional lives, but that their unsuitable and unrealistic choices make them unhappy. Therefore, as part of my postgraduate dissertation, I investigated perfectionism, fear of negative evaluation and inferiority. My research indicated that these three concepts were indeed associated with each other. I am very happy to be a member of the PSG-CAPS Team. Together, we aim to highlight the importance of self-awareness and setting realistic goals to reach happiness and success. We consider the effect of the educational paradigm shift, focus on personal development in relation to career construction, practically apply up-to-date research and support students in nurturing self-awareness and making suitable career decisions. We make a difference to students’ lives through in-class activities and help form an effective team by supporting the interaction between students, parents and educators. Esra Yılmaz I have a BA In Psychological Counseling and Guidance and a minor in Sociology (completed in English) from Marmara University. I completed the Family Counseling Programme at the same university. My interest in career guidance grew during my undergraduate education as did my belief that the career decision should be made through conscious deliberation. Through my personal experiences, I realised that career guidance is not provided effectively in schools and that the field is greatly lacking in its applications. Therefore, I decided to pursue a professional career in career guidance and joined the PSG-CAPS Team. CAPS also positively impacted my way of living, decision making processes, self-understanding, attitudes, thoughts and behaviours. I strongly believe that the “Career Education and Guidance in Secondary Education” Certificate Programme, which is meticulously designed to focus on the small details as well as the big picture, helps educators develop their knowledge, abilities and skills which, in turn, will undoubtedly have a positive impact on their students.
Psychologist
Psychological Counselor
Psychological and Family Counselor
Our Mission
Our mission is to raise responsible, mindful, analytical, cooperative, and creative young people who have the ability to unlock their unique potential for their own benefit and that of others.
Our Vision
Our vision is to expand CAPS globally, in order to guide as many young people as possible towards their full potential.
Our Aims
- To make a difference to how the careers process is approached by individuals and schools
- To support the young people’s growth
- To raise awareness in schools, teachers, parents, guardians, and young people regarding the career process
Our Values
- Honesty and Sincerity
- Responsibility
- Courage
- Love and Respect
- Commitment
- Creativity
The Skills We Prioritise
- Mindfulness
- Cooperation
- Critical and Analytical Thinking
- Resilience
The Concepts We Embody
- The reflection of values in our behaviour
- The practical application of decision making
- The relationship between emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and behaviour
- The differences and relationships between instincts, needs, beliefs, emotions, values, and skills
Contacts
Varyap Grand Tower A Blok D:11
Batı Ataşehir, İstanbul
+90 216 514 98 07
11A Beechwood Crescent,
Chandlers Ford SO53 5PE, England
+44 2380 578018 / +44 7986 297775
E-mail
info@psg-caps.com