The Contribution of the Strengthened Capacity of Vocational Education and Training System in Turkey to the Fight against Covid-19

Abstract

Education is one of the most heavily affected sectors by the negative consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Countries make an effort to support their students via distance education solutions and to avoid the interruption of education. The same predicament is experienced by Turkey, where the Ministry of National Education (MoNE) presents the distance education via both its online education platform and television broadcasts. Considering the number of students in Turkey and the situation in other countries, MoNE is observed to have been successfully delivering mass distance education support and increasing the quality of its distance education through continuous innovations and improvements. In addition, MoNE has taken some important steps to strengthen the vocational education and training (VET) system in Turkey, elevating VET to a much more favorable status for students, teachers and various sectors. In the days of struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic in Turkey, VET has made a great contribution to the manufacturing of some urgently needed medical products, ensuring their ready availability. In this study, the current structure and the four major problems of VET in Turkey are discussed, the improvements made in VET after the introduction of Turkeys 2023 Education Vision are reviewed, the contribution of VET to the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is analyzed, and some suggestions are made on further strengthening the VET system in Turkey.