Problems of vocational and technical education in Turkey: a phenomenological study in the department of child development

The most important two production factors that provide the economic growth of a country are manpower and natural resources. The highest possible efficiency from the natural resource can only be obtained by training qualified manpower. In order to raise qualified manpower, special importance is attached to vocational and technical education. Vocational and technical education, which has a large share in meeting the labor demand. It can be defined as the type of education that provides the lowest qualification and general professional culture that the individual needs to acquire in order to find a place for himself as a producer in a certain profession in business life with any status. In the historical process, vocational and technical education, which was not systematic until the Middle Ages, gained a systematic feature through the medieval guilds. However, with the Industrial Revolution, one of the turning points of production, new types of production systems began to be used and medieval guilds disappeared. After the Industrial Revolution, the concept of education, which became controversial, has been shaped by each country in line with its own economic goals. In the history of Turkey, vocational and technical education is called Ahilik Organization, Lonca Organization and Gedik Organization before the Republic was declared. Apprenticeship education, which was considered outside the education system after the proclamation of the Republic, was included in the education system only about 3 years after the proclamation of the Republic. After this date, many laws and regulations have been enacted for the regulation of vocational and technical education. In the first part of this thesis, which consists of four parts, the general concepts of education and labor market are explained and the historical development of vocational and technical education in the world and in Turkey is given. In the second part, the problems and remedial policies of todays vocational and technical education system in Turkey are emphasized. In the third part, the method of the research is explained. Finally, in the fourth part, the general thoughts of the graduates of Yalova Nene Hatun Girls' Technical and Vocational High School Child Development and Education Department regarding vocational and technical education, their thoughts on the level of proficiency in vocational education, their thoughts on labor market-school conflicts, and finally, the findings and results of the interviewer's suggestions given. In this context, the study was prepared in accordance with qualitative research methods and the data were collected through a semi-structured interview form. The collected data were analyzed through the MAXQDA 2020 program. As a result of the study, it was determined that the practical training in vocational and technical high schools was more efficient than the theoretical training, the school was physically-equipped insufficient, the expectation of working in the post-graduate internship institution was not formed, and the interviewers could not find a job because at least vocational school graduates were employed in the department/field where vocational training was received. Another striking point in the study is that more than half of the interviewees could not find a job outside the department/field where they received vocational training. It was determined that the reason why most of the interviewees who graduated from vocational high school could not find a job outside the department/field of vocational education was related to the idea of preparing for the university exam.