Turkey Career Guidance-Individual and Public Benefit!
The world has changed significantly in the last year. Digital growth, increased automation and artificial intelligence (AI) require people to be committed lifelong learners (ETF, 2020) thinking about their transferable skills, upgrading their skills to remain in employment. Increasingly, career guidance offers both digital and non-digital careers information, advice and guidance to a diverse range of clients. With all these unprecedented changes and developments, careers interventions need to transform to respond to the diverse needs of the target groups.
ETF, intended to identify the status quo of career guidance policy and implementation in several countries. Turkey was one of these. I, as the national expert, conducted the work, together with the very valuable contributions of the related stakeholders, as a joint venture, Ministry of National Education (MoNE), the Turkish Employment Agency, (İŞKUR), and universities, explored and wrote about the policy side, strategies, initiatives, governance, financing, good practices, key figures and statistics.
It is impressive to see the considerable institutional and human capacity for better applicability of new trends like the use of ICT, cooperation and coordination, career management skills and parent involvement. The policy initiative for a comprehensive labour market information system could be beneficial for the country. The major revisions conducted in the guidance and counselling system in MoNE to prepare and empower the youth for the changing demands of the labour market and the world of work of 2023s, and the new restructuring of İŞKUR by implementing targeting information and profiling based counselling system are promising for the future.
Due to pandemic, the use of digital tools has been perceived as a necessity and pivotal and the great need of supporting the professionals to develop/upskill/reskill their digital skills is envisaged in the system. The present state of art promotes a capacity building in this respect and attitude change/development toward digital transformation in career interventions, thus keeping the important dimension of human intervention. The following resources could be supportive as evidences of the present state of art in Turkey in relation to Career Guidance and how to proceed with new evidence-based policy development.
ETF publication "International trends and innovation in career guidance" (EN,
Turkish and Russian version)
Volume I: EN:
https://www.etf.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2020-11/innovation_in_career_guidance_vol._1.pdf
Turkish:
Volume II (practice cases): EN:
https://www.etf.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2020-11/innovation_in_career_guidance_vol._2_0.pdf
Turkish:
Recording of the dissemination webinar for the above ETF publication subtitled
now also in Turkish and Russian (people were waiting for the translations/subs):
Factsheet:
It is very valuable and rewarding to see that the ETF report serves the purpose. I have great confidence that the policy makers will continue to make the best of use of the report and the Factsheet for evidence-based policy making in the field of career guidance.