Vocational education centers eye 1 mln young people: Minister

ISTANBUL

The government aims to bring 1 million young people together with vocational training centers by the end of this year, Education Minister Mahmut Özer has said, noting that Türkiye is in a recovery process in vocational education.

“Türkiye has come to a very important point in terms of providing the human resources needed by the labor market with its expansions in both vocational high schools and vocational training centers, much stronger than the previous educational applications,” Özer said speaking at the Vocational Education and Employment Workshop organized by the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (MÜSİAD).

Stating that the workshop focuses on strengthening vocational education and increasing its link with employment, Özer said, “I would like to thank the scientists, experts and sector representatives who contribute to this process. All sectors have made very important contributions to Türkiye reaching this very important point.”

“Hopefully, we will no longer talk about new problems related to vocational education but write new success stories by collaborating with our businessmen. We will show all parents and families that vocational education is a very critical type of education for the future of the country,” Özer said.

Many collaborations have been established between vocational high schools and the education members of the association, covering many fields, according to Özer.

Aselsan Vocational Technical Anatolian High School, Teknopark Istanbul Vocational Technical High School, Konya Vocational Technical Anatolian High School and vocational high schools affiliated to Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ) and Yıldız Technical University (YTÜ) are among these collaborations.

“Demirören Media Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School, which we established recently, started to accept students who managed to rank in the top 1 percent slice,” he said.

Stressing that students who get enough points to go to science high schools prefer vocational schools, Özer said, “This indicates a change. If you build vocational high schools with strong infrastructure and employment guarantee, there will be demand.”

Vocational education centers are places where students in secondary education receive four years of education by both working and studying in the chosen profession in line with their interests and abilities.

Unlike in vocational high schools, training is one day a week, vocational training is carried out in enterprises on other days.

At the end of the third year, the students are taken to the journeyman exam, while the master exam is given at the end of the fourth year to the successful ones with an internationally valid certificate.