European and national policies on Vocational Education and Training (VET) need to be informed by sound and internationally comparable statistical evidence. The VET country statistical overviews are concise, descriptive and user friendly statistical reports. For each country, they quantify and compare key aspects of VET and lifelong learning. The selection is based on the indicators' policy relevance and their importance in achieving the Europe 2020 objectives.

VET indicators for the Turkey for the last available year
Index numbers (EU=100)

NB:   The index numbers are derived from data summarised in the table. Data in the table have been rounded to one or two decimal places. The calculation of index numbers is instead based on not rounded data.

Turkey’s performance on a range of indicators selected to monitor progress in VET and lifelong learning across the European Union (EU) is summarised below. The chart compares the situation in Turkey with that of the EU, based on the most recent data available (this differs by indicator). Data in the chart are presented as an index where the EU average equals 100. If the index for a selected indicator for Turkey is 100, then its performance equals the EU average. If the index is 90, its performance is 90% of (or 10% below) the EU average. If the index is 200, Turkey’s performance is twice (or 200%) the EU average. For some indicators, such as early leavers from education and training, a country is performing better if its score is below that of the EU average.

Data on which the index is calculated are presented in the table, which also shows developments over time. A technical definition of each indicator is provided in the annex.

Key points

Access, attractiveness and flexibility

The share of Turkish upper secondary students enrolled in vocational programmes (49.0%) is slightly above the corresponding EU average (47.3%) (data for 2015). Nearly all upper secondary IVET students in Turkey are in programmes giving direct access to tertiary education (99.3%), in contrast with the EU (at 66.7%).

Adult participation in lifelong learning at 5.8% is relatively low compared to the EU average of 10.8%. This difference is also reflected in the participation rates of various subgroups. The rates for older people (0.7%) and low-educated adults (2.8%) enrolled in lifelong learning are considerably lower than the respective EU averages (7.0% and 4.2%). However, the rate for unemployed people (9.2%) enrolled in lifelong learning is only slightly below the EU average (9.6%). Also, young VET graduates are more likely to participate in further education (48.4%) than in the EU as a whole (32.8%).

Skill development and labour market relevance

Public expenditure on VET as a percentage of GDP in Turkey at 0.48% is below the corresponding EU average of 0.54% (data for 2014). The average expenditure per student, at 3 000 purchasing power standard (PPS) units, is considerably lower than the 8 400 PPS units in the EU. The percentage of short-cycle VET graduates among first time tertiary education graduates (at 39.1%) is much higher than the EU average (9.0%). The percentage of innovative enterprises with supportive training practices is near the percentage in the EU (43.0% versus 44.8% in the EU, based on data for 2014).

The employment rate for IVET graduates (aged 20-34) at ISCED levels 3-4 (67.3%) is relatively low compared to the EU average of 78.1%. Their employment rate is 8.7 percentage points higher than for graduates from general education (above the EU average premium of 5.7) and 12.5 percentage points higher than for graduates with lower-level qualifications (though this is below the EU average premium of 23.4 percentage points). All these employment data relate to 2016 and exclude young people in further education.

Overall transitions and labour market trends

In this section all data refer to 2016 unless otherwise stated.

The share of early leavers from education and training in Turkey (34.3%) is much higher than the EU average (10.7%), but this indicator has shown improvement over the recent years (with a decrease by 8.8 percentage points since 2010). At 26.5%, the share of 30 to 34 year-olds with tertiary-level education is below the EU average of 39.1%, but also after a considerable increase (by 11.0 percentage points) since 2010.

The NEET rate (30.7%) is twice as high as in the EU (15.2%). The unemployment rate for 20 to 34 year-olds has increased by 1.8 percentage points since 2014 while decreasing in the EU by 2.4 percentage points, giving Turkey (at 14.7% in 2016) a rate above the EU average (at 11.8%). Employment rates for 20 to 64 year-olds and recent graduates are lower than in the EU. The share of adults with a low level of educational attainment is much higher (64.4%) than in the EU (23.0%). In addition, the employment rate of 20 to 64 year-olds with a low level of educational attainment is lower in Turkey (48.3%) than in the EU (53.6%).

Score on VET indicators in Turkey and in the EU, 2010,
last available year and recent change

EU refers to EU-28, unless otherwise specified. Arrows ↗ or ↘ signal a positive or negative change. Arrow → indicates: no change.

(A) UOE back reconstruction of 2010 values based on ISCED 2011 not yet available. (B) AES 2011, used as proxy for 2010 baseline. (C) 2014 b flags in Eurostat online tables ignored on the basis of other relevant Eurostat metadata. (D) Forecast made in 2016. (E1) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for NL. (E2) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for EL, ES, NL, PL, RO. (E3) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for IT, NL. (E4) Based on 23 countries (missing: DK, EL, HR, IT, PT), with partial information for IE and FR. (E5) Based on 23 countries (missing: DK, EL, HR, IT, PT), with partial information for IE and FR. (E6) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for DK, EL, NL. (E7) Based on 25 countries (missing: HR, IT, UK), with partial information for BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, LU, NL, PL, SE. (E8) Based on 25 countries (missing: IE, FR, UK), with partial information for BE, EL, LU. (E9) Based on 26 countries (missing: IE, UK), with partial information for DK, DE. (E10) Based on 28 countries. (b) Break after 2010, therefore baseline data not included. (u) Eurostat: ‘low reliability’. (z) Eurostat: ‘not applicable’. (e) Eurostat: ‘estimated’.

Country-specific report details

Country report type
Keywords

Prenosi

Statistical overview on VET - Turkey - 2017 edition

EN 331.53 KB

Annex 1 – Short descriptions of indicators and additional notes

EN 74.35 KB

Annex 2 – Reading the Country statistical overviews

EN 39.5 KB

Annex 3 – 2017 Masterfile Country statistical overviews

EN 488.58 KB