State policies on vocational high schools in Turkey 1970-2013

Abstract

This thesis examines the last 40 years of vocational high schools in Turkey. Perceived as an input for future industrial growth, the area has drawn constant attention of policymakers. Here vocational high schools are considered as the main form of skill formation in Turkey and compared with the skill formation literature. Looking at the path-dependent characteristics and the changes that occurred during the years marked by the neoliberalization of economic policies, two aspects of the persistence of the skill formation problems are analyzed: the lack of a model and a long-term strategy for vocational education and training. While tracing the components of these two aspects, it is revealed that the aspects defined as problematic and require a strategy remain the same. The state’s interest on this issue continued. Furthermore, despite the neoliberal environment, vocational education remains a statist area in which the state’s limitations in its commitment to the skill formation issue enabled the simultaneous occurrence of three different models of skill formation. This patchwork of different types of skill formation systems manifests the institutional continuities as well the particular way the changes were adopted. Overall, the lack of commitment to a model and a strategy complicates the institutional complementarities or relationships in the political economy. As the aspirations for a coordinated model are widely declared, the mechanisms compatible with this system are not formed. The absence of institutional complementarities between vocational schools and other realms of the political economy attenuates the chances of a viable and effective vocational education policy.