Students enrolled in the vocational education centers in Ankara expressed their happiness to make contributions to the family budget while continuing their high school education.

 

Noting that they have been getting skill training at work places, vocational education center students said that they are receiving one third of minimum wage as a monthly salary and they also had the opportunity to obtain a business license after graduation.

 

Any secondary school graduate who wants to learn a profession can apply to vocational education centers without any age limit and get 3 year long apprenticeships and 1 year long foremen education. Within this context, apprentices get 1,658 TL and foremen get 2,763 TL monthly salary and they are also insured against occupational accidents and illnesses. All these expenses are paid by the state.

  

Vocational education centers offer education in 33 fields and 181 branches including "beauty and hair care services, motor vehicle technology and food and beverage services" and provide the graduates the opportunity to receive vocational high school diplomas by offering high school classes. Employment rate of vocational education center graduates is 88 percent.

 

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer stated that vocational education has been taking firm steps in becoming the hope of Türkiye again adding that, "In line with Türkiye's campaigns carried out with the purpose of raising quality of labor force, number of students enrolled in vocational education centers increased from 159 thousand to 910 thousand within ten months."

 

Reminding that the students of the centers are going to school once a week and continue their skill trainings at real work environment during the other days of the week, Özer went on to say that:

 

"We have amended the Vocational Education Law No. 3308 on December 25, 2021 in order to reinforce vocational education centers and to respond to the apprentice and foremen needs of the labor market. This amendment turned the vocational education centers into centers of attraction for both employers and students.  We are happy to see that this new method is swiftly disseminated. Our President set a goal to enroll 1 million apprentices and foremen in vocational education centers until the end of 2022. Thanks to Allah, our efforts gave results within a short period of time and I believe that we will not only achieve our goal but we will go beyond it."

 

Minister Özer vowed to design new projects in 2023 in order to make Vocational Education Centers (MESEMs) stronger and respond other long term needs of labor market adding that, "These centers make positive contribution to the young unemployment rates while responding apprentice and foremen need of small and medium size enterprises. I believe that these centers will make an important improvement in the indicators measuring transition from education to labor market which are actively used in performance indicators of OECD countries.