A Turkish education union accused the government’s expanding vocational training system for teenagers of prioritizing employers’ labor needs over students’ education, in a report released Monday.
The report by Eğitim-İş, a union representing teachers in Turkey, said students enrolled in the country’s Vocational Education Centers program (MESEM) spend most of the week at workplaces under weak supervision and in hazardous conditions. The union also cited workplace deaths involving students and what it described as increasing business influence over public education.
MESEM is a state-run vocational training system that allows students as young as 14 to combine schooling with workplace training. Students typically attend classes one day a week and spend at least four days working in businesses such as factories, auto repair shops, hair salons and construction sites.
Turkey’s Education Ministry has previously defended the program as a way to reduce school dropout rates, help students gain professional skills and address labor shortages in technical sectors.
But Eğitim-İş argued that the system increasingly serves employers’ demand for state-supported labor rather than students’ educational development.
According to the report, many students receive little structured vocational instruction and instead perform unrelated tasks and physically demanding work, including cleaning workplaces, serving tea and running errands.
“When I first arrived, they gave me large metal parts and told me to assemble them,” one student quoted in the report said. “I had to figure out on my own what went where.”
The report also argued that the system encourages employers to replace graduating students with newly enrolled teenagers whose wages continue to receive state support, rather than hiring adult workers on full salaries and benefits.
Under the current system a large share of student wages is paid by the state through Turkey’s unemployment insurance fund. Eğitim-İş said the arrangement significantly lowers labor costs for businesses
One employer quoted in the report said hiring MESEM students was considerably cheaper than employing regular workers because much of the cost was covered by the government.
The union report also cited several fatal workplace accidents involving students enrolled in the program, including teenagers who died while working at industrial and construction sites.
At least 852 children have died in work-related accidents in Turkey over the past 13 years, according to the Health and Safety Labor Watch (İSİG), a Turkish labor rights group.
According to the report MESEM enrollment has risen sharply following legal changes that expanded financial incentives for employers participating in the program. The union said enrollment had increased from about 160,000 students during the 2020-2021 academic year to more than 560,000 by May 2026.
Eğitim-İş also linked the growth of the program to Turkey’s economic difficulties, arguing that rising inflation and education costs have pushed many low-income families toward vocational programs that allow teenagers to earn money while remaining formally enrolled in school.
The union said participation in MESEM is often driven less by student choice than by financial necessity.
The report also argued that Turkey’s apprenticeship system differs from many European vocational training models, where workplace training often begins at older ages and under stricter labor protections. According to the report, students can enter MESEM at age 14, compared with age 16 in many European systems.
Eğitim-İş called for the MESEM system to be shut down entirely, arguing that vocational education should remain centered in schools rather than workplaces.
