Education Minister Yusuf Tekin has rejected allegations that vocational training centers in Türkiye endanger students, saying the government places children’s health and safety at the center of the program and enforces strict oversight of participating workplaces.
Speaking in parliament during debates on his ministry’s budget, Tekin said the vocational training system operates within a clear legal framework and is regularly monitored to prevent violations.
In Türkiye, vocational training centers are designed to combine theoretical classroom learning with practical, on-the-job training. Recently, the system has faced criticism due to fatal accidents at participating workplaces.
The minister said claims portraying the program as unsafe or exploitative misrepresent how it functions.
"This approach, which presents every step we take to strengthen the bridge between education and labor as if we are establishing a system that turns our youth into cheap labor, disregards the truth, the statistics and the pedagogy,” he said.
The minister noted that during the 2024–2025 academic year, authorities inspected 253,000 businesses where students receive on-the-job training.
As a result of those inspections, contracts with 23,252 companies were terminated due to safety or compliance failures.
According to Tekin, students are placed in workplaces through a multi-step evaluation process that involves more than the education ministry alone.
Businesses must meet requirements related to occupational health and safety, training capacity, the qualifications of supervising instructors and the availability of appropriate social and learning environments.
Workplaces included in the program are inspected at regular intervals, he said, and those failing to meet standards are removed.
Tekin also addressed the detention of young people during recent protests against the system.
He said those detained were not arrested for protesting, but for actions that damaged public property and disrupted the freedom of assembly.
