Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

With the Vocational Schools Education Cooperation Protocol Signing Ceremony held at the TOBB Twin Towers Reception Hall, a multi-stakeholder and multi-dimensional transformation process was initiated in cooperation with Chambers and Commodity Exchanges in selected vocational schools across Türkiye. TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and YÖK President Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar signed the cooperation.

In his speech at the signing ceremony, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu pointed out that the business world has been having problems in finding qualified human resources for years, while many young people all over the country cannot find a job.

Pointing out that this picture poses a great risk for Türkiye’s future, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Because when the link between education and employment is broken, our young population turns from an advantage into a lost potential. The step we are taking here today is to change this asymmetrical structure. We have boasted of our young population for years, but we could not fully utilize this potential because our young people could not acquire vocational skills.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that vocational training is a matter of the country and that Germany, the country with the lowest youth unemployment in Europe, has solved this problem through chambers.

- Getting out of the middle income trap also depends on education moves

Stating that Türkiye’s recovery from the middle income trap is directly dependent on education moves, Hisarcıklıoğlu used the following expressions:

“The most important anchor for Türkiye to reach its future goals is its human capital. This capital we need will be formed by our young people who have undergone qualified vocational education. Therefore, strengthening vocational education is not only an education policy but also a critical economic and development strategy. The Vocational Education Cooperation Protocol we signed with the Ministry of National Education in 2019 was the first step of this strategy. Thanks to this model, which we launched together with the Ministry, TOBB and TOBB ETÜ, we integrated vocational education and the real sector, and switched to a new and dynamic education model. We supported our 129 vocational high schools in 81 provinces in every aspect.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that the graduates of these schools make a difference in the business world thanks to the education they receive, and said that they are taking firm steps towards the goal of raising the qualified workforce needed by the private sector.

Stating that with the protocol they signed today, the programs of vocational colleges will be constantly updated according to the needs of the sector, Hisarcıklıoğlu noted the following:

“In this process, there will be close cooperation with industry and trade representatives. Education and production will meet at the same table. Vocational schools have put new programs focused on digital skills and green transformation on the agenda. New associate degree programs are being opened in areas such as software, artificial intelligence, cyber security and health technologies. In this way, we will both close the chronic shortage of qualified human resources in the industry and offer our young people a hopeful career path. Thanks to the protocol, our 388 vocational colleges will be matched with our chambers and stock exchanges in the provinces and districts where they are located, and just like in vocational high schools, co-management and consultation mechanisms will be established. Success in industry, trade and technology depends not only on engineers and managers, but also on the intermediate experts who complement them. The wheels cannot turn without them.”

- Higher Education Council President Özvar

In his speech here, YÖK President Prof. Dr. Erol Özvar pointed out that vocational colleges, which train qualified human resources needed by different sectors, have a critical role in Türkiye’s economic development.

Stating that they have reviewed the programs that have lost their function in vocational schools, whose graduates have low employment rates or are no longer demanded by the sector, Özvar said that they have transformed these programs to provide new skills needed by the sector.

Özvar stated that they are continuing their efforts to ensure that vocational colleges play a more active role in areas such as information-based technologies, artificial intelligence, big data, cyber security, digital health technologies, digital agriculture and green energy, and pointed out that as YÖK, they are working on policies that will enable vocational colleges to be intertwined with industry, trade, service and technology sectors.

Özvar stated that the fact that graduates of vocational schools in organized industrial zones are employed at a high rate of 78 percent clearly demonstrates the importance of university-industry cooperation and that they aim to spread this model throughout Türkiye.