Vocational training courses provided for convicts and ex-convicts

Work not only serves as an income source for former convicts but also helps them integrate into society. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of vocational training courses on the employment of former convicts. Various methods and policies are implemented for the employment of former convicts, and in accordance with positive discrimination under Article 30 of the Labor Law No. 4857, employers are obliged to employ 2% of former convicts in their public workplaces where they employ fifty or more workers, in jobs suitable for their profession, physical, and mental conditions. Administrative fines are imposed on employers or their representatives who do not employ former convicts for each month for each former convict they did not hire. However, unfortunately, low participation of former convicts in the labor market and high unemployment rates among them are not eliminated by legal regulations. Because the education levels of former convicts are lower than the societal average, vocational training courses, along with other policies, are crucial. In our country, vocational training courses for former convicts are organized by İŞKUR (Turkish Employment Agency), and these programs are financed through administrative fines deducted from workplaces obliged to employ former convicts. Expanding vocational courses designed for former convicts within the scope of job definition, making the courses free of charge, tailoring them to demand, and according to labor market characteristics, informing teachers about the emotional and psychological characteristics of former convicts, and conducting field research on the effectiveness of the courses would be beneficial in developing an effective vocational training model.