Conference on "Learning from Türkiye's Experiences with Vocational Education and Training Reforms" Held in Istanbul...

Hosted by the Ministry of National Education (MEB), in cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Training Foundation (ETF), a conference titled “Building a Future-Ready Vocational Education and Training System: Learning from Türkiye’s Experiences with Vocational Education and Training Reforms” was held at the OECD Istanbul Centre to address the reform Türkiye has carried out in the field of vocational education.

The conference, where experiences were shared on policies and practices that make vocational education systems responsive, flexible, innovative and supportive of students’ transition into the changing world of work, was attended by policymakers and social partners from OECD countries and other nations. Participants included Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer, TOBB President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, representatives of international organizations such as the OECD and ETF, as well as TÜROB Secretary General İsmail Taşdemir on behalf of TÜROB, representatives of countries such as Austria, Switzerland, Albania, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Croatia, Morocco, Slovakia and Georgia, representatives of institutions and NGOs active in the field of education, and members of the Ministry of National Education.

At the conference, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer explained that vocational education in Türkiye is managed through two channels—vocational and technical Anatolian high schools and vocational training centers—and, pointing to the major changes they had made, said the following:

*Because the private sector’s share in vocational high schools is low compared to the world average, we developed a joint management model with the private sector to share only their experience, without receiving any financial contribution from them.

*We now update the curriculum together across all fields in which vocational education is provided in vocational high schools. We plan our students’ skills training in enterprises together. We jointly organize the on-the-job and professional development training of teachers, which is critical to the quality of vocational education. We ask for only one thing: priority in employment.

Özer stated that within one year of launching this transformation in vocational education, they had begun to see academically successful students enroll in vocational high schools. He reported that, for the first time, students in the top 1 percent achievement band in the LGS (High School Entrance Exam) chose vocational high schools, that successful students now see a future in vocational education, and that they plan their careers accordingly.

Minister of National Education Özer said that, modeling it on the apprentice, journeyman and master training that was part of Türkiye’s thousand-year-old “ahilik” (guild) culture, they had taken up a type of education involving one day at school and four days of skills training in enterprises, the aim of which was to train the human resources most needed by small and medium-sized enterprises.

Recalling that two important legislative changes were made on December 25, 2021, Özer noted that, with this legislative change, the state had begun to cover the entire portion of the minimum wage paid to students, which had previously been a burden on employers.

Özer reported that the number of apprentices and journeymen in vocational training centers, which stood at 159,000 on that date, had risen to 1,108,000 as of today, and said: “Our target for 2022 was 1 million, and we reached 1,108,000 before December even arrived. I believe we will close out 2022 in the band of 1,200,000, and in 2023 this growth will continue to increase steadily.” Noting that 55 percent of these apprentices and journeymen are over the age of 18 and that 326,000 of them are women, Özer commented: “In other words, women too will now have gained a very important instrument for continuing their lives in a much more resilient, much more robust way, equipped with vocational education as they transition into the labor market.”