Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin Spoke on Trauma Recovery and Sector Integration in Vocational Education

Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin, in his speech at the Vocational Education and Industry Meeting held at Yalova Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that when he was undersecretary at the Ministry of National Education in 2013, they were working on how to eliminate the effects of the February 28 trauma, which suddenly threw away Türkiye's experience in vocational and technical education since the beginning of the Republic.

Stating that they faced two important issues regarding this, Tekin stated that these were social work to compensate for the damage caused by trauma and being able to analyze the needs of the sector well in the rapidly changing world.

Tekin emphasized that the curriculum of vocational high schools was prepared together with the chamber of the relevant sector with the "Project School" concept they implemented, and said, "The sector said 'okay, let's say we did these. You sent me a random student from TEOG, as it was known at the time, based on their scores. We do not know whether this child has developed manual skills in vocational education or not." Then we said, 'We give you a third exception. "Student selection initiative." he said.

Reminding that over time, on-the-job training and internship programs started in vocational high schools, Tekin said:

"We started to provide public support for on-the-job training and internship practices at 30 percent and 50 percent of the minimum wage. Then, we insured the children who went to on-the-job training and internship training against workplace accidents and occupational diseases. We did this from public funds. This was also a very important step, and in this way, we took steps to strengthen the harmony between the industry and the vocational high schools. We established a very healthy relationship."

"SCHOOL WITHIN THE SECTOR" AND "SCHOOL IN INTEGRATED WITH THE SECTOR"

Tekin reminded that the "Vocational and Technical Education Policy Document" was published in the Official Gazette with the signature of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2024, and that they later defined two schools as "in-sector school" and "sector-integrated school".

Stating that they are obliged to protect the rights of the students entrusted to them, Tekin said:

"Within this law, when we provide this training to the child, we need to make it possible for the child to be employed. While giving this training to the child, we need to be sensitive about the measures to be taken regarding occupational health and safety. We are very sensitive about this issue. The workplace with which we signed a protocol is constantly inspected, and as a result of the inspection, we terminate the protocol with the workplace where we find deficiencies in these occupational safety measures."

Tekin added that the gross national product of countries that train qualified human resources in a qualified manner is positively affected by approximately 2 to 5 percent.

Yalova Governor Ahmet Hamdi Usta, AK Party Deputy Chairman and Yalova Deputy Ahmet Büyükgümüş, Yalova Deputy Meliha Akyol, AK Party Yalova Provincial Chairman Umut Güçlü, Yalova Chamber of Commerce and Industry managers, sector representatives and vocational high school administrators attended the program.