Important Step by the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and TÜROB for Trained, Qualified Employees in Tourism Employment....

A meeting was held at the Swissotel The Bosphorus Hotel with the participation of Minister of Culture and Tourism Mr. Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Minister of National Education Mr. Mahmut Özer, TÜROB President Mrs. Müberra Eresin, and relevant institutional executives.

At the meeting, the parties evaluated developments regarding the "Vocational and Technical Education Development Cooperation Protocol" signed on 23 September 2019 between the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of National Education for the purpose of employing qualified personnel in the tourism sector, along with expectations and proposals concerning existing schools that provide tourism education, and the Vocational Training Centers project. Following the meeting, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer stated: “Today, together with our Ministry of Culture and Tourism and TÜROB, we are taking a new step regarding vocational training centers to meet the human resource needs of our hotels in Istanbul. For the first time, we will make a start on foreign language education in vocational training centers, and we will have met the human resource needs of all our hotels in Istanbul. We will have provided some 25 thousand of our people with both training and employment opportunities in the field of tourism.” Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy stated: “Today, Istanbul was chosen as the pilot region. In the field of tourism, which has experienced a contraction worldwide for two years due to the pandemic, the biggest problem to be faced in the coming years will be a shortage of personnel; to meet the need for qualified personnel, we have accelerated our work in cooperation between the Ministry of National Education and our sector. We have established a commission of representatives from our Ministry, the Ministry of National Education, and NGOs. The commission will identify issues such as what the needs are regarding vocational education, what problems are encountered in practice, and what additional curricula would yield better results, and within 10 days we will determine our roadmap going forward accordingly. Our goal is to bring qualified personnel who have received vocational training into the sector.” TÜROB President Müberra Eresin commented: “As a sector, we have focused on the near future when the effects of the pandemic will disappear. I would like to state that this meeting, at which we evaluated developments and our proposals in the field of tourism education—foremost among them the matter of qualified employees, the most important element of the service sector—was extremely productive for the sector, and that we will immediately begin work on the issues we discussed at the meeting.”

The meeting was attended by Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer, TÜROB President Müberra Eresin, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Nadir Alpaslan, Deputy Director General of Research and Training at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Vildan Satık, Deputy Director General of Investment and Enterprises at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Emin Özkan, Head of the Tourism Education Department at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism İsa Satar, Istanbul Provincial Director of Culture and Tourism Dr. Coşkun Yılmaz, Director General of Vocational and Technical Education at the Ministry of National Education Kemal Varın Numanoğlu, Department Head at the Ministry of National Education Recep Altın, National Education Expert Kübra Güzelyurt, Istanbul Director of National Education Levent Yazıcı, Istanbul Deputy Director of National Education Zekine Dayıoğlu, TÜROB Vice Presidents Hediye Güral Gür, Armin Zerunyan, and Taner Yallagöz, TÜROB Secretary General İsmail Taşdemir, and TÜROB Board Members Temel Aygün and Uygar Koçaş.