Turkish economy and vocational education system: Regressive or progressive?

Energy Education Science and Technology Part B: Social and Educational Studies

2013 Volume (issue) 5(1): 159-170

Turkish economy and vocational education

system: Regressive or progressive?1

Bulent Tarman1,*, Mehmet Fatih Yigit2

1Konya University, Faculty of Education, Department of Primary Education, Konya, Turkey 2Suleyman Sah University, Istanbul, Turkey

Received: 16 October 2011; accepted: 13 December 2011

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to focus on the importance of quality education for making labor force

competitive. By analyzing current data from the Ministry of Education, Organization for Economic Co-

operation and Development (OECD) reports, and Turkish Employment Organization (İŞKUR), the

authors aim to find how the Turkish labor force can be improved by effective education reforms. This

research study is qualitative in nature and does content/item analysis of a large quantitative data obtained

from “Strengthening the Vocational Education and Training System in Turkey” (SVET) survey. We

believe that a high-standard education system and improved economy are correlated with each other. We

also believe that it is much more important for Turkey, as a candidate country for European Union (EU),

to have a strong economy and education system. For that reason, the authors propose that in order to have

a strong economy, vocational and technical schools need drastic changes.

Keywords: Vocational education and training; Turkey; Quality education; Economy; Labor; Social skills

©Sila Science. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

It is widely believed that jobs require more and more advanced skills and, as a result,

employees need to upgrade their skills or risk losing out in the competition for jobs in the new

economy of today’s global world. It is also evident that most countries in the world realize that

good initial vocational education and training has a major contribution to make to economic

competitiveness [1-25]. Researches show that the reason why many of these unemployed workers

might be considered "unemployable in a modern economy" is their comparatively low level of

education [8]. In our study, we focus on the importance of quality education for making labor

force competitive. By analyzing current data from the Ministry of Education, Organization for

Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reports, and Turkish Employment

____________ *Corresponding author. +90(507) 310-4933 E-mail address: [email protected] (B. Tarman). 1This paper is presented at the 54th CIES Annual Conference: "Reimagining Education" Comparative and

International Education Society, March 1-5, 2010 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

mailto:[email protected]

B. Tarman, M. F. Yigit / EEST Part B: Social and Educational Studies 5 (2013) 159-170 160

Organization (ISKUR), we aim to find how the Turkish labor force can be improved by effective

education reforms. We believe that a high-standard education system and improved economy are

correlated with each other. We also believe that it is much more important for Turkey, as a

candidate country for European Union (EU), to have a strong economy and education system. For

that reason, we propose that in order to have a strong economy, vocational and technical schools

need drastic changes [21-23].

Education is the leading factor of a strong economy. The role of vocational education and

training (VET) is important in raising skills, knowledge and competencies of high and low skilled

workers as well as labor market fledglings [3].Thus Turkish governors should focus on new

policies regarding vocational education and training institutions. We claim that a strong economy

and a productive education system are strongly bounded to each other. In order to have a strong

economy and healthy society, we claim that early recruitment into work, and conducting aptitude

tests will play essential roles. However the reality that many young people cannot make their best

decision when they are 14-15 years old should not be ignored and general academic skills and

vocational skills should be balanced at the beginning of vocational education training so that

students can find their ways into other areas, including academic works at universities [12].This

means that sufficient attention should be given to general academic skills as well as practical

skills.

2. Theoretical framework

The role of education in today’s global society is very complex. The schooling transforms the

individuals in a number of ways. It provides the individual not only with social skills for

becoming a responsible nationally and globally competent citizen but also with specific

professional vocational skills to be used in the world of work. There has been an explicit

emphasis in labor-market-related educational goals in many countries. Titles like ‘The transition

from education to work’, ‘Preparation for adult life’, ‘Strengthening vocational education and the

curricula’ are just couple examples of the themes of national and international conferences

[14].The concern about education and work is not new. In the early 1960s the same theme was

cast in terms of ‘education for economic growth’ and education was considered a kind of

investment that would help national income to increase. The theme ‘education for economic

growth’ had two characteristics that have diminished over time: economic efficiency and

aggregation. Later the emphasis has shifted towards income distribution and disaggregation with

youth unemployment as a major social issue that caused the recent interest in the relationship

between education and labor market [14]. There exists a host of theoretical reasons about why

youth unemployment and education might be related. The most obvious reason is that of a

mismatch between supply and demand, i.e., the school system (supply side) does not adequately

prepare its graduates for the world of work (demand side). Another reason at the intersection of

education and the labor market is that of credentializm (or screening or certification).

There is no economy in the world that can afford to neglect education. OECD studies show

that one additional year of education in the OECD area, over time, generally increases economic

output by between 3 and 6% [9]. Therefore, The EU plays an enhancing and complementary role

in the field of education, with its policies geared to increasing the quality of education across

Europe and promoting it inside the EU and worldwide. Daniel Gros, Director at the Centre for

European Policy Studies (CEPS), [4] points to the need for more investment in education in order

to improve EU citizens’ skills and eventually affect the employment rate that was set as a goal of

the Lisbon strategy with 70% employment rate by 2010. In this paper, we are going to examine


the unemployment problem in Turkey and approach it from the perspective of the goal of the

Lisbon strategy.

3. Background information about Turkey

The private sector in Turkey is strong and rapidly growing. Especially beginning from the

early 1980s, there have been important attempts to liberalize and integrate the country’s economy

in a global perspective. Signing of Custom Unions with the EU in 1996 is regarded an important

step in this direction. Turkey not only has a strategic position between Europe and Asia, but also

plays an important role in gathering the economies of Eastern Europe and Asian countries

together. The per capita income of Turkey is a clear indicator of how the country has faced

economic developments in the last ten years. If we look at the per capita income in 1997, we see

that it was $3.130 whereas in 2008, the the per capita income increased to $10.745 (World

Development Indicator Database, 2008) which is an important development for the

modernization of the country.

Modernization and growth is not only seen in certain fields, but it is extended to almost all the

economic sectors in Turkey, especially in industrial sector, tourism, transportation, finance and

commerce that have faced important improvements in terms of being considered among the

economic sectors of the developed nations in the world. Those improvements in economic sectors

revealed the need for trained and knowledgeable manpower that could handle the problems

coming with new developments and this process created new labor market demand. At this point,

the gap between the training provided by vocational training system and the real needs in the

labor market became clearer [3].

The 9th five-year Development Plan (2007-2013) explicitly mentions the problems in

vocational institutions and says: “The reasons that the employment rate of vocational institutions graduates is low and there is lack of

demand to those institutions are that there is disconnection between the curriculum of vocational high

schools and vocational colleges and the vocational education programs are not updated according to the

demand of labor market” (The 9th five-year Development Plan).

The 9th five-year Development Plan also criticizes the test-driven education system in the

country and says that as a result of having a test-driven education system, it becomes difficult to

reach the desired levels in terms of educational success and big amounts of money is spent on

supplementary educational activities that leads to have economic, social, and psychological

problems in family institutions. In fact, official reports show that Turkey is not alone with this

problem. When we look at the EU countries, a large number of young people leave education

institutions without having acquired the skills needed for a smooth transition into employment.

Nearly one in six young people in the EU are early school leavers. Member States aim to reduce

this figure to an average of 10% by 2010, but it is uncertain whether this can be achieved. One in

four young adults (ages 25-29) has not completed upper secondary education level. Surveys point

to considerable deficiencies in pupils' mastery of basic literacy and numeracy skills, which

constitute a serious obstacle to progression into vocational training or higher education, leaving

them to face a precarious future in society and the modern labor market [13].

The 9th five-year Development Plan proposes a solution to have enough manpower for the

real needs in the labor market and says that data about education, employment, and current jobs

of households will be gathered in order to analyze how to solve the problem of lack of qualified

individuals for the labor market.


4. Method/data

This research study is qualitative in nature and does content/item analysis of a large

quantitative data. In our study, we employ the data from “Strengthening the Vocational Education

and Training System in Turkey” (SVET) survey. In this survey, 5651 private, public, and

government institutions have been interviewed face-to-face and the results are presented

according to those interviews. The SVET project collects data by using survey in order to assess

the demand needs of labor market in the 30 provinces in Turkey. As for structure of the

questionnaire, the data is collected by implementing a method of face-to-face interviewing. The

sampling procedure used in the survey is not random sampling. In order to provide a ood sample

frame, the quality, characteristics and availability for sampling of the business registers of TUIK,

SSK, TESK, TOBB, BAGKUR and the Ministry of Finance were analyzed (Labor Market and

Skill Needs Survey, 2005). We are using this survey data because it is the most recent data that

have been collected in 2006. Most data sources used in this report, stem from the statistics and

surveys of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜIK), in particular the Household Labor Force

Surveys (HLFS) and the latest Census of the Population.

Usually labor market assessments cover both quantitative and qualitative aspects in a single

study. In this study, the concentration of quantitative analysis is on measuring labor market

developments in terms of employment and vacancies to be able to provide estimations for future

educational improvements. On the other hand, the qualitative analysis of this survey is presented

to give recommendations to educational institutions in order to choose the best curricula and

educational programs in future.

The reason that Labor Market and Skills Needs Analysis Survey (LM/SNA) is chosen is

reported to be “the need for generating accurate and large-scale information in the 30 SVET

provinces for the job families covered by the project” [15]. One of the important characteristics

of Turkish labor market is that there is lack of willingness in terms of having relationship

between vocational education institutions and employers. This survey looks and tests the

willingness of employers to get closer to vocational institutions but the main focus of the survey

is to look at the skill needs and identify skill needs problems of employees (Labor Market and

Skill Needs Survey, 2005).

A summary of the subjects included in the survey is the followings: Employers assessment of employment developments in their companies and expectations for the nearest

future;

Problems in filling vacancies with qualified staff

Labor mobility at company level: degree hiring of employees by companies as well as degree of outflow

(for natural, voluntary and involuntary reasons totally)

Assessment of the economic situation and economic perspective by companies within their sector

Skill problems of existing staff

Actions taken by companies to train their employees;

Assessment of VET graduate qualities

Assessment of the value of apprentices and interns for companies.

5. Findings

The survey conducted by Svet (labor market team) and ISKUR (employment department)

includes 40 main topics in which there are many other sub-categories under those main areas for

each provinces included in the study. The main sections of the survey are as follow:


Table 1. The main areas that the survey covers 1- Companies and employees per region and sector

2- Expected employment development by company size, region and sector,

3- Occupations for which respondent expect changes in employment by region,

4- Occupations for which respondent expect changes in employment by sector,

5- Vacancy rate by region, sector and company size,

6- Number of unfilled vacancies by preference for gender and by occupational group (ISCO 3 digit),

7- Number of unfilled vacancies by region by occupational group (ISCO 3 digit),

8- Number of unfilled vacancies by sector and by\ occupational group (ISCO 3 digit),

9- Requirements for bottleneck vacancies by occupational group (ISCO 3 digit),

10 Hiring rate by region, sector and company size,

11- Newly hired personnel by gender and by occupational group (ISCO 3 digit),

12- Newly hired personnel by region and by occupational group (ISCO 3 digit),

13- Newly hired personnel by sector and by occupational group (ISCO 3 digit),

14- Firing rates by region, sector and company size,

15- Personnel that left the company by region and by occupational (ISCO 3 digit),

16- Personnel that left the company by sector and by occupational group (ISCO 3 digit),

17- Capacity utilization rate by region and sector,

18- Opinion on capacity utilization by region and sector,

19- Reasons for not working at full capacity by region and sector,

20- Expectations about changes in capacity use by region and sector,

21-Reasons to expect an increase in capacity utilization by region and sector,

22- Reasons to expect a decrease in capacity utilization by region and sector,

23- Investment purposes by region and sector,

24- Opinion of companies on the economic situation of the sector by region and sector,

25- Skill problems by skill type, region and sector,

26- Skill problems per occupational group (ISCO 3-digit), % distribution over skill types,

27- Technical skill problems by region and sector, % distribution per skill type,

28- Technical skill problems by occupational group (ISCO 3-digit), % distribution per skill type,

29- Language problems by region and sector, % distribution by language,

30- Language problems by occupational group (ISCO 3-digit), % distribution by language,

31- Enterprises and employees involved in training by region and sector,

32- Companies and employees involved in technical courses by sector, % distribution over course type,

33- Companies and employees involved in language training by sector, % distribution over language,

34- Companies that hire VET graduates and number of recruited VET graduates by region and sector,

35- Assessment of VET graduates by skill type and sector,

36- Companies where apprentices worked by region, sector and company size,

37- Apprentices by region, sector and company size,

38- Companies that train interns by region, sector and company size,

39- Number of interns by company size and sector

40- Opinions of companies that train interns by region, sector and company size.

*Labour Market and Skill Needs Survey 2005, An enterprise survey for 31 provinces of Turkey.

During the analysis process of the data, we looked at the assessment criteria of vocational

education training graduates by skill type and sector and we found that for the sixteen sectors,

which are presented in table 2, the three important criteria are willingness to learn (%38.8),

ability to adapt to working environment (%28.62), and willingness to work hard (%22.37). An

important finding that we are going to talk about in the discussion section is that, foreign

language efficiency is not to be seen among the priorities of employers when hiring vocational

education graduates. The mean for that is only %2.37 which is relatively low compared to other

criteria (Table 2).

Vocational education training is composed of theoretical knowledge and practical skills.

Without theoretical knowledge, practical skills might not work properly, or vice versa. Having

practical skills is crucial for VET graduates to find jobs and to meet the needs of the labor

market. However, as we see in the Table 2, 26% of the employers find the VET students’

practical skills low while 51% of the employers find them normal skilled. Even though having

normal skill level might not sound like a problem, it should be taking into consideration that

almost 78% of the employers are not very satisfied with the VET graduates. By implementing

effective education reforms, most of the problems reported by employers in Table 2 can be

solved even though they might take time.


Table 2. Assessment of VET graduates by skill types Opinion of employers

Low Normal High Quality

26 51 23 Practical skills

21 57 22 Social and communication skills

43 49 9 Administrative skills

81 17 2 Foreign Language skills

35 52 14 Client-orientedness

11 48 40 Willingness to learn

30 52 18 Computer skills

8 61 31 Ability to adopt to a work environment

28 50 22 Willingness to work hard

56 26 17 Educational competencies

100 0 0 Law information

0 0 100 Learning skills

43 28 29 Operational skills

0 0 100 Teaching skills

43 32 25 Teaching drawing skills

9 91 0 Tools and equipment skills

31 64 5 Vocational competencies

Source: Labor Market and Skill Needs Survey, 2005.

We have mentioned above that sufficient attention should be given to general skills as

well as practical skills. Strong numeracy and literacy skills are the general skills that should be

taken into consideration during Vocational Education Trainings as well as practical skills so that

probability of unemployment can be reduced. Data from International Adult Literacy Survey

show that people with low literacy are more likely to lose their job (Figure 1). Also an increasing

number of jobs require general skills and those skills can be gained and improved by good

literacy and numeracy skills [6]. This finding shows us that practical training and general

knowledge training, including numeracy and literacy, should be balanced in VET institutions to

make sure that students are trained both theoretically and practically that will help them to find

the job that fits them best. Reforms that should be planned and implemented should take account

the importance of technological change and complexity of teaching and communication skills in

the world. By preparing programs according to the realities of the world, the VET programs can

help students to compete with the rapidly and unpredictably changing labor market needs.

Fig. 1 Probability of unemployment and literacy proficiency Probability of being unemployed according to prose literacy score, for men aged 16-25 with

less than upper secondary education, 1994-

1998

Source: OECD and Statistics Canada (2000), Literacy in the Information Age. Final Report of

the International Adult Literacy Survey, OECD, Paris.

Soft skills, such as social and communication skills, client orientedness, ability to adapt to a

work environment, willingness to learn, reliability, adequate manners, and work ethic have

become important predictors of getting job for employees in many countries (Schneeberger &


Nowak [12].). What help those soft skills to be gained are workplaces where students get in touch

with customers/employers and live in the real world instead of just practicing in a classroom

environment [12].

The findings show that there is a strong preference toward choosing male employees rather

than female. Among the occupations included in the survey, the mean score for specifically

female choice is 7.31% whereas it is 49.52% for male employees. However an average of 43.13%

of the answers to gender choice says that it does not matter for employees (Table 3).

Table 3. Gender preference in filling vacancy Employers prefer the vacancy to be filled by (%) Occupations (ISCO 88)

Male Female Doesn’t matter

52 12 36 Total


When we look at the hiring rate by region, sector, and company size, rate of newly hired

personnel for Hotels and restaurants sector is %39, for construction sector is %33.3, and for

manufacture of machinery sector is 26.1. The lowest hiring rate is in public utilities, %8.1. Hotels

and restaurants, construction, and manufacture of machinery sectors are not only the first three

sectors in which hiring rate is the highest, they also represent the first three sectors in which

firing rate is also the highest; %34 in construction sector, %30 in hotels and restaurants sector,

and %20 in manufacture of machinery. On the other hand, public utilities sector has the lowest

firing rate of %7. For all the sectors shown in Table 5, lack of domestic demand is the most

striking reason of not working in full capacity. The other two reasons are general economic

situation of Turkey and economic situation of the sector. However the results show that almost all

the sectors are optimistic about their future (Table 4). Among the reasons to expect an increase in

capacity utilization are domestic demand, foreign demand, and new investment, economic

situation of the sector and of the country.

Table 4. Expectations about changes in capacity use by sector

Total Number

of Companies

Response (%

of total)

Expectation on capacity utilization

Total Will increase Will decrease Will be the same Sector

76106 46 100 74 14 12 Total

504 49 100 72 8 20 Mining & quarrying

2371 46 100 66 23 10 Manufacture of food products

10090 47 100 52 27 22 Textile and leather industry

3065 47 100 79 14 7 Manufacture of wood products

2419 55 100 89 2 9 Chemical & Oil Industry

3995 57 100 74 13 13 Metal Industry

3064 57 100 71 19 10 Manufacture of machinery

1208 58 100 80 7 13 Manufacture of transport equipment

384 37 100 65 5 30 Public Utilities

5839 34 100 63 27 11 Construction

19131 41 100 81 11 8 Wholesale & retail trade

5309 54 100 76 7 17 Hotels & Restaurants

4225 48 100 72 16 12 Transport & telecommunication

4374 41 100 92 0 8 Financial Services

3546 46 100 71 9 20 Real Estate & Business

6582 42 100 84 8 8 Health & Public service


Social and communication skills seem to be the most important type of skill problem that the

sixteen sectors reported. We get a mean of 26.25% for social and communication skill problem,

whereas it is 13% for management skill problems, and only 10% for computer problems.

Financial and budgeting skill has the lowest rate of report for as low as 3.75%. The most


important finding of the survey is to give the distribution of reported skill problems over

technical and professional skills. The results of the survey explicitly show that the two problems

that are most important are theoretical knowledge, and vocational competencies. An average of

34% of the sectors report that they have problems with their employees regarding vocational

competencies, while that rate for theoretical knowledge is 36%. Other skill problems like foreign

language skills, learning skills, and organizational skills have little importance compared to the

first two categories.

Table 5. The sectors involved in the survey Mining & quarrying Construction

Manufacture of food products Wholesale & retail trade

Textile & leather industry Hotels & restaurants

Manufacture of wood products Transport & telecommunication

Chemical & oil industry Financial services

(Non) Metal industry Real estate & business

Manufacture of machinery Health & public service

Manufacture of transport equipment Public utilities

In Table 2, we have mentioned the assessment of VET graduates by skill types by giving the

opinions of employers. When we read the Table 2 and Table 4 carefully, we see that the labor

market needs people and analyze them based on the expectations about changes in capacity use

by sector. In Table 2, 81% of the employers has said that the VET graduates have low level of

skills in terms of speaking a foreign language. And when we look at Table 5, we see that the jobs

that require a foreign language are the top ones that employers are expecting changes in capacity

use in near future. Those sectors are financial services, wholesale and retail trade, manufacture of

transport equipment, hotels and restaurants, and chemical and oil industry.

6. Discussion and conclusion

Based on the data obtained through the SVET survey, the most mentioned skill problem is

social and communication skills (27% of all answers) in terms of the share of a skill type in the

total number of mentioned skill problems. This skill is closely related with the social science and

studies courses that students have been taking through their education since it facilitates in

learners the attainment of knowledge, develops skills and promotes desirable attitudes needed to

function as informed, productive citizens. So, the question is how and why these courses do not

prepare our students adequately? Or what is the reason that our students are not able to get

enough social and communication skills for the job market? As this problem is founded in 2005

via the survey, what have the officials (policy makers, school administrators, officers of Higher

Educational Institutions) been doing to address this skill problem?

Turkey has been trying to address those issues by making reforms in its educational system to

meet with the EU standards such as curriculum, textbooks, teacher preparation programs etc. [16,

17]. Special attention is given to the recent curriculum reform of 2005 and the new Social Studies

textbooks that have been redesigned as an aspect of Turkey's seeking admission to the European

Union. The Ministry of Education policy statements about the new curriculum and textbooks

involve a claim that they promote critical thinking and open-mindedness, along with a student-

centered approach [1].

Also, several initiatives took place to improve the teacher quality by changing the teacher

education curricula. The policy makers in Turkey took the action to revise the existing national

teacher education curricula, including elementary social studies courses to increase the level of

schooling [5] to get students graduated with the required skills by the labor market.


All this data and recent developments show that reforms in Turkish educational system are not

enough. Turkey still needs strategic and drastic reforms in order to compete in international arena

with other developed and developing countries. This means that a second need to alter

institutions fundamentally is inescapable. Much of the discussion of development policy today

focuses most attention on ensuring that everybody is in school regardless of the learning that goes

on. It is inevitable to have “Diploma Disease” if we continue to educate people for a piece of

paper as it can be understood from our analysis. The important thing is to provide quality

education to prepare our students for the job market and real world conditions with the required

skills. There is the need to take into account the goals, structure and practices and realities of

Turkish education or any country that seeks to reform its assessment if indeed the Diploma

Disease is to be combated. The point of departure is for examination system to re-examine its

philosophies and practices with a view to facilitate the transformation of the tasks of schooling in

Turkey from ‘educating to get a job’ to ‘educating to do a job’ – i.e. effectively combating the

Diploma Disease.

It is unquestionable that the best policy reform for an education system is to increase years of

schooling and quality of education at the same time. However, these two goals usually cannot be

achieved at the same time due to the nature of policy reforms. For that reason, we argue that

instead of focusing on years of schooling, the Turkish Education reformers should concentrate on

dealing with the current problems of education and increasing the quality of educational

institutions.

Policies for promoting education and lifelong learning have to be adjusted for employability to

changes in the economy and society. Joint employment and education policies should increase

participation of adults in lifelong learning. Lifelong learning is essential, not only for the

competitiveness, and economic success of the countries who suffer, but also for social inclusion,

employability, active citizenship and personal accomplishment of people. Individuals must be

able to update and balance their knowledge, competences and skills throughout life [8].

According to the data “other skill types that were mentioned often are: management skills

(13%), elementary and basic skills (13%), work planning skills (11%) and ICT skills (10%)”

[15].There is no doubt in the 21st century that ICT skills and knowledge are becoming

increasingly vital to be able to participate in society. Adults without ICT skills, confidence and

access to technology are at serious risk of being excluded. To improve these skills, Turkish

government has increased the number of ICT classes at schools. To meet the need for computers

in ICT classes, 200,000 computers have been provided through the “Support Campaign

Computer Assisted Education” with the voluntary contributions of individuals and companies as

well as 206,000 computers purchased by the MONE and given to schools by 2006 [7]. According

to the Ministry of National Education’s report (2008), as of beginning of 2006-07 school year, 86

percent of primary education students and 95 percent of secondary education students have

access to Internet. Construction of infrastructure still continues in rural areas that lack necessary

infrastructure. However, although providing internet access is one of the important steps, it is not

enough by itself without having qualified teachers to teach and help students to develop their ICT

skills. Also having access to internet does not mean that all students have access to internet

anytime they want. As we have shown above, the number of computers per student is too low for

Turkey compared to OECD countries.

We have mentioned above that practical and general skills teaching should be balanced in

order to help VET graduates to easily adopt the situations out there. Looking at Table 6, we see

that time spent in practical training as ration of total program in Turkey is between 50%-75%,

which might be thought as an example to our suggestion. Having said that, one might claim that


there is balance between time spent in practical training and general skills (literacy and

numeracy) in Turkish VET institutions. However it should be analyzed in depth to what extent

practical skills and general skills are taught in VET institutions in real life.

Table 6. Time spent in practical training as ratio of total program

75% or more Between 50%

and 75% Between 25% and

50%

Less than 25%

Varies depending on institutions, programmes, fields, etc.

Australia*

Austria - Belgium (Flanders) - -

Czech Republic - - - Denmark - - - - Finland - - - - France - - - Germany - - - Hungary - - Netherlands

Norway - - -

Sweden - - - - Switzerland - -

Turkey - - - United States - - - -

*Most upper secondary vocational programs are outside the school sector.

Source: Kuczera, M. , The OECD International Survey of VET Systems, OECD, Paris.

Note: Estimated percentage of vocational upper secondary programmes: - 0%; 1-25%; 26-50%; 51-75%; 76-100%;

We propose some suggestions for educational reform that, we think, will have positive effects

on labor market in Turkey. Our proposal includes two major points: Early recruitment into work,

and aptitude tests.

Early prevention is a key investment. More quality vocational education and training is

necessary, but providing additional pathways linked to the world of work, providing

apprenticeships or other combination of programs that look to motivate and encourage students

towards completion are also important. As an example, providing different levels of curriculum

depending on the need of the specific programs rather than having generic knowledge levels

implies a “Flexi-education,” which means that there are pathways across the systems and that

there are no dead ends [10].

We know that educational reforms do not occur in one night and the process is exhausting and

time-consuming. However, there are many advantageous of early recruitment. Some of those

advantageous are; a cure for uneducated unemployment, solution for shortage of middle-level

man-power, more mature students, and greater flexibility in school curriculum [2]. However, one

should be aware of the possible objections to the idea of early recruitment. Those objections can

be categorized as follows; loss of a dynamic spin-off, the bureaucratization of society, objective

and subjective criteria, increase in training but decrease in education, and it is too costly [2].

Our second point in education reform is related to the current student selection system. The

system that is now implemented tests the achievements of the students instead of their skills.

Students are learning the things that are being asked in tests instead of the knowledge that they

will really need in their life. We believe that implementing aptitude tests instead of achievement

tests will increase the communication between labor market and educational institutions.

Curriculums will be designed according to the needs of labor market so that the students


graduated from vocational high schools or colleges will be tested about whether they meet the

requirements of labor market or not.

7. Contribution and future direction

According to the OECD’s initial report [10].about the Learning for Jobs; “in recent years, vocational education and training (VET) has become a policy priority in OECD

countries. There are three main reasons. First, VET has an important economic function,

providing trade, technical and professional skills for the workforce. Second, there are signs of

emerging strains in VET systems, including a lack of workplace training places and a shortage of

vocational trainers and teachers. Third, VET has been neglected in the past, certainly by analysts,

but also to some extent in the policy arena.”

The same OECD report [10].indicates that “many vocational skills, particularly practical

skills, can in principle be learnt on the job by employees. But firms may be unwilling to invest in

training for different reasons, because they fear poaching, or are too small and specialized to

provide broad enough training to give a young person a good start in working life. High

minimum wages and other labor market regulations may make it more attractive for an employer

to hire trained workers than to train raw recruits. For these reasons and others, it often makes

sense for governments to provide vocational training to young people”.

Therefore OECD prepared an initial report “to help governments shape their policies so that

they teach the right mix of skills to meet labor market needs, so that they prepare their teachers

and trainers well, and that they make full and effective use of workplace training. In addition,

countries need to fully engage employers and trade unions to support policy development and

implementation”. Turkey should also consider this report carefully since vocational education

system in Turkey has important problems that need to be addressed in order to increase the living

standards in the country. We analyzed large sets of data and the findings show overall what

Turkish labor market and Vocational education system need to improve. Substantial support (165

million €) has been provided under EU programs in the area of basic education and vocational

education and training. This assistance has included policy advice, curriculum development, as

well as equipment and infrastructure investments in 2009. Therefore, further studies are needed to

analyze this financial support and its outcomes from internal/external perspectives.


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Turkish economy and vocational education system: Regressive or progressive?

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