Turkey’s union of chambers to be in charge of vocational high schools

ANKARA

The Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), the highest legal entity in Turkey representing the private sector, will have 81 vocational high schools in all provinces in Turkey under its auspices as part of a protocol signed with the Education Ministry.

“We will expand this public-private sector joint management model, which we will develop with this pilot project to the entire vocational education, to the future,” TOBB head Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu said on Feb. 26 at the signing ceremony of the protocol in the capital Ankara.

“We are integrating the vocational training with the real sector. Thanks to our education minister’s robust and firm policy, a first is happening in Turkey. We are transforming to a new and dynamic vocational education model which is being prepared with regards to qualifications demanded in the market,” he said.

“We will improve the teachers as well by giving them on-the-job training along with in-service training. The students who graduate from these schools will be ready for the business life. The students [of vocational schools] will be staff on demand, not the intermediate staff,” said Hisarcıklıoğlu.

Hisarcıklıoğlu expressed that the curriculum of the schools, which will be handed over to TOBB, will be prepared with the assistance of TOBB University of Economics and Technology.

“The middle income trap mentioned in the economy is actually a secondary education trap, which means that ‘if education improves, the economy will too.’ We are happy to take such a step in this sense,” Education Minister Ziya Selçuk said at the event.

“Of course we have expectations from the business world. [TOBB] made a commitment to provide the necessary support within the scope of this protocol,” he said.

Selçuk also stressed that in Germany, 80 percent of vocational schools get support from the private sector. “For us, this figure is around 4 percent. I believe that all of these works are just the beginning,” the minister said.

In accordance with the protocol, TOBB will establish “Research and Development [R&D] and Design-Skill Ateliers” in schools.

While scholarships will be granted to successful students, all students will have the opportunity to do internships or even land jobs in the associate companies of TOBB.

Students will not be the only ones subject to education, teachers and school administrations will also undergo trainings as well.

The “Protocol Implementation Board” will be founded, which will shape the school administrations and the curriculum based on the needs of the industry and human supply and demand factor.

The curriculum will be revised from time to time in accordance with the demands of the private sector.