Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Hisarcıklıoğlu and Özer made the opening speeches of the Vocational Training Centers Cooperation Protocol Ceremony at TOBB Conference Hall. TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, stating that the private sector should benefit more from vocational training centers, said, “In this context, I invite our young people to enroll in vocational training centers and our employers to accept students from vocational training centers.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu, in his speech at the ceremony, said that they believe that the priority issue of the country is education.

Referring to what TOBB has done in the field of education, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “As the private sector, we were complaining about not being able to find qualified employees and that vocational training did not meet the needs. We wanted to increase public-private sector cooperation in vocational education and strengthen the role of the private sector. We wanted vocational training to be the most important tool in meeting the human resources of the private sector. This has been on our agenda for 20 years. We have received both great support and important actions from our Minister Mahmut Özer in this regard.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu, pointing out that vocational education has become a center of attraction in the world of education again, said that the occupancy rate in vocational high schools across Turkey is 95 percent in 2022 LGS.

- Financial support provided to every student in the centers

Hisarcıklıoğlu invited Turkey's major companies to accept intern students and graduates from vocational high schools and continued:

“Today, we will take a new step to increase the cooperation of vocational training centers, which are the rising value of vocational education, and our chamber-exchanges and members. With the support of our Minister, the number of students in vocational training centers has increased significantly. We see vocational training centers as an opportunity for our young people who are not in employment and training. State support for students in vocational training centers has been increased and the burdens on employers have been lifted. Our state provides support at the rate of 1/3 of the minimum wage for each student in vocational training centers, and in the last year this support increases to half of the minimum wage.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu, calling on the private sector to benefit more from vocational training centers, said, “In this context, I invite our young people to enroll in vocational training centers and our employers to accept students from vocational training centers.”

The cooperation protocol envisages the pairing of vocational training centers with the chambers and commodity exchanges affiliated to TOBB, increasing the number of students in these centers, and recruiting more students from these centers to the member companies of the chamber-commodity exchange.

- Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer

Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer stated that thanks to the cooperation with the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), the youth unemployment rate will be reduced to 15 percent, which is the OECD average, in addition to raising the human resources needed by the country.

In his speech at the ceremony, Minister Özer stated that TOBB is the biggest stakeholders in education and reminded that the “81 Vocational and Technical Anatolian High Schools Project in 81 provinces”, which is the first move in the restoration of vocational education, was also implemented with TOBB.

Noting that the production capacity in vocational education has increased, Özer emphasized the importance of education by producing. Özer said, “In order for the student to learn, he / she should put his/her hand on the production line in the real business environment and take an active part in all processes. As the Ministry, we do not claim to 'Let us leave education aside, let us produce, let us compete with the market.' Our concern is to build production capacity as a link in that chain in a way that will strengthen the cycle of education, production and employment.”

Reminding that high school diploma opportunities were introduced to vocational training centers, Özer underlined that an attractive mechanism was created for both employers and students with the regulation made in the Vocational Education Law No. 3308 on December 25, 2021. Özer said, “We cannot keep up with the figures. The number of apprentices and apprentices in this country, which was 159,000 on December 25, 2021, has reached 600,888 as of today. By the end of the year, our goal is to bring 1 million young people together with vocational training centers. We can throw the words that have been bothering us for years, 'I can't find the apprentice or journeyman I am looking for,' into the dustbin of history.”