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1. Governance

2. Cross-sectorial cooperation

Governance

Turkish Employment Agency

The Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) was established with the Law of 25/06/2003 and No 4904 in order to facilitate activities relating to protection, improvement, generalization of employment, and prevention of unemployment and to provide unemployment insurance services.

Duties of the institution are as follows:

a) To facilitate activities relating to development of national employment policy and protection, improvement of employment, prevention of unemployment and to carry out activities relating to unemployment insurance.

b) To compile, analyse, assess and publish at local and national level the labour market data; to establish the Labour Market Information Consultation Board and to coordinate activities of the Board; to make and ensure conduct of labour need analyses for determination of labour supply and demand.

 c) To make or ensure conduct of business and vocation analyses; to provide or ensure provision of business and vocation consultancy services; to develop and implement labour training, vocational training and labour adaptation programs in order to enhance employability of the labour force; to organize training seminars for employed labour.

d) To make studies relating to regulation of worker demand and job search; to mediate employment of the labour force at jobs in domestic and foreign markets which are suitable to their qualifications and finding suitable labour force for several jobs and signature of foreign service agreements; to contribute in employment of labour force that workplaces have to employ and labour force hard to employ; to fulfil duties imposed to the Agency in relation to private employment offices; to carry out procedures relating to provision of workers to be employed by employers in their own jobs and activities in foreign countries and allowing or prohibition of mediation of employment in agricultural activities.

e) When necessary to provide institutions and establishments with training and consultancy services at national or international level by participating in tenders relating to the Agency’s field of activity.

f) To follow up decisions taken by the European Union and international agencies relating to labour, employment and working life; to implement bilateral and multilateral agreements, conventions and recommendations to which the Republic of Turkey is a party and which are covered by responsibilities of the Agency.

The General Assembly of İŞKUR is composed of representatives of public institutions and establishments engaged in employment activities, professional organizations having the nature of public institution and worker and employer confederations.

Duties of the General Assembly are as follows:

 a) To facilitate development of national employment policy compatible with the governmental economic and social policies; to assess progress in such implemented policies.

b) To facilitate protection, improvement and generalization of employment and prevention of unemployment; to provide suggestions.

c) To discuss periodic activity reports of the Agency; to provide suggestions to improve services of the Agency. Outcomes of the General Assembly meetings shall be documented in the form of a report and such report shall be submitted to the Ministry within two months.

            Resolutions of the General Assembly are taken into account in policy making and implementation activities of the Agency and other relevant institutions and establishments.

Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) is not an affiliated public body, however it is a related institution to the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Services. This means that its dependency on the mentioned Mimnistry is on a very lower degree.

Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development Organization

The Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development Organization (KOSGEB) was established with the Law of 12.04.1990 and No 3624 in order to enhance share and effectiveness of small and medium scale enterprises in meeting social and economic needs of the country, to enhance their competitive power and level and to ensure integration in industry according to economic developments.

Duties of the Organization:

 a) To ensure establishment of Technology Centres, Technoparks, Consultancy Centres, Institutes and similar units in order to support and implement research and development activities in industry;

b) To enable enterprises to get use of the Science and Technology infrastructure at universities and Public and Private research centres; to strengthen industry-university cooperation;

c) To have access to existing technological knowledge and to generate new technological knowledge, to generalize knowledge accessed or generated in order to higher the technological level;

d) To establish or ensure establishment of Technology centres and Technoparks in which new and advanced technology-based information is compiled, assessed, improved and made available to enterprises for use by production purposes through opportunities provided by universities and research centres;

e) To establish or ensure establishment of Expertise Centres which will implement project profiles in order to guide investments in various industries to ensure that enterprises adopt a planned management understanding, modern and contemporary business level, get use of unutilized capacity, enhance efficiency and carry out comprehensive “Technical Assistance and Support programs and Projects” in fields of modernization, production, management, marketing, information and technological adaptation;

h) To enable enterprises to get strengthened and improved in terms of knowledge and skills in the fields of investment, production, management and planning;

i) To look for solutions to marketing problems of enterprises; to carry out necessary activities in order to enable enterprises to be capable to compete in domestic and foreign markets and to organize consultancy services for the same purpose in the most efficient manner;

 j) To take necessary measures for improvement and generalization of entrepreneurship culture and environment; to support entrepreneurs and enterprises;

k) To enhance cooperation between enterprises; to support development and generalization of joint investments to be made with the participation of domestic and foreign capital contribution; to take necessary measures and provide supports in order to improve the investment environment.

The General Assembly of KOSGEB is composed of representatives of public institutions and establishments engaged in employment and entrepreneurship activities, professional organizations having the nature of public institution and worker and employer confederations. Duties of the General Assembly, in line with the Development plans and Programs, are to take improvement and supporting decisions for enterprises, to take measures to plan implementations and ensure coordination, to give regulatory instructions, to assess annual activity reports of the Ministry, to determine principles of annual working program and to provide suggestions in order to ensure adaptation of enterprises to technological developments and free competitive environment.

The main actor in Turkey in terms of employment is the Turkish Employment Agency. The Agency is the relevant body of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (Çalışma ve Sosyal Güvenlik Bakanlığı) and a public establishments subject to private law provisions, having a legal personality, and autonomous in terms of its administrative and financial aspects. Other important actors are the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, the Ministry of Customs and Trade and the Ministry of Development. Active elements at local level of governance are the Provincial Directorates of Labour and Employment Agency. The most needed professions are determined according to the results of Labour Market Need Analyses made by Provincial Directorates of Labour and Employment Agency located in 81 provinces throughout the country and the Provincial Directorates of Labour and Employment Agency develop Annual Labour Training Plans in order to organize courses/programs for such professions.

The main actor in Turkey in terms of entrepreneurship is the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Development Organization. KOSGEB is a public establishment related to the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, has a legal personality and is subject to private law provisions in its procedures. The Ministry of Economy is the main actor in terms of foreign trade and investment entrepreneurship. The Development Agencies autonomously engaged in activities under the Ministry of Development is a significant actor in terms of entrepreneurship in relation to mobilization of public and civil community cooperation at local level. 

Cross-sectorial cooperation

In Turkey the main actors of employment and entrepreneurship, respectively İŞ-KUR and KOSGEB interact with other public authorities, organisations of employers and employees. There is a close cooperation between İS-KUR and the Ministry of National Education in the field of training high quality workforce and vocational education thanks to the Protocol for Training Workforce and Service Concord between the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Ministry of Labour and Social Security. In the same vein, İŞ-KUR collaborates with universities to inform the students about professional career possibilities.

KOSGEB following the example of İŞ-KUR as a part of its role for providing non-formal education in the field of entrepreneurship carries out cooperation with municipalities and universities.

Ministry of Youth and Sports implements several programmes for promoting youth entrepreneurship by using the educational programmes of İŞ-KUR and KOSGEB.