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EACEA National Policies Platform
Türkiye

Türkiye

3. Employment & Entrepreneurship

3.8 Development of entrepreneurship competence

Last update: 28 November 2023
On this page
  1. Policy Framework
  2. Formal learning
  3. Non-formal and informal learning
  4. Educators support in entrepreneurship education

Policy Framework

In the Tenth Development Plan which is one of the basic documents in terms of realization of long-term development strategy of Turkey a situation assessment was made on Entrepreneurship and relevant policies and objectives were determined. The basic aim is “to enhancement of contribution of SMEs to economic growth by improving their competitive power” as specified in the heading “Entrepreneurship and SMEs” of the Tenth Development Plan. In this sense, it is stated that innovative SMEs should be supported in terms of product, services and business model and enterprises having growth potential or rapidly growing.

The Turkish Entrepreneurship Strategy and Action Plan (2015-2018) developed by KOSGEB is one of the official milestone documents of the entrepreneurship policy. Similarly, the Strategy and Action Plan for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises is an important document in terms of enhancement of the competitive power.

General aim of the Turkish Entrepreneurship Strategy and Action Plan (2015-2018) is to generalize entrepreneurship culture in turkey, to develop a strong ecosystem and to improve entrepreneurship. 6 strategic objectives determined under such policy are as follows:

  1. Development of entrepreneur-friendly regulatory framework
  2. Supporting innovative entrepreneurship
  3. Development and implementation of a sustainable support systems for general fields and prioritized thematic fields such as Women Entrepreneurship, Youth Entrepreneurship, Eco Entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship and Global Entrepreneurship
  4. Improvement of entrepreneurship culture
  5. Generalization of entrepreneurship trainings at formal and non-formal education level and improvement of counselling system for entrepreneurs
  6. Facilitation of access of entrepreneurs to financing

In the 11th Development Plan which is one of the basic documents in terms of realization of long-term development strategy of Turkey, under heading of “Youth”, a policy measure (no: 619) saying that cultural, scientific and sportive activities fostering young people’s innovative and entrepreneurial competences is to be encouraged, promoted and made more accessible takes place.

In the (2019-2023) Strategy Plan for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (KOSGEB) which is the leading public body in the field of entrepreneurship, the strategic goal consisting in fostering of entrepreneurial ecosystem through trainings is included.

Formal learning

One of the important objectives of the EU 2020 strategy is to include issues such as creativeness, innovation and entrepreneurship in training subjects due to importance of promotion of entrepreneurship spirit and perspective for young people. According to such objectives it is seen that studies relating to inclusion of entrepreneurship education at primary, secondary high school and higher education level in curriculums are getting more common and that they are reflected in strategic plans of countries. The entrepreneurship in Turkey has been included in individual strategic plans of primary and secondary schools as specified in the Turkish Lifelong Learning Strategy Document and Action Plan (2014-2018) and the Strategic Plan of the Ministry of National Education (2015-2019). At primary and secondary schools entrepreneurship-oriented EU projects are carried out.

Under the Applied Entrepreneurship Training Cooperation Protocol signed between KOSGEB and the Directorate General of Vocational Technical Training of the Ministry of National Education students are provided with Entrepreneurship trainings.

One of the eight basic competencies tried to be achieved for students studying at educational programs from first to eighth class is the entrepreneurship. In the educational programs “entrepreneurship” is an intermediary discipline and its basic acquirements are provided by relating it to some courses.

Generation of entrepreneurial ideas, improvement of entrepreneurial ideas, business establishment and improvement modules are included in the vocational development lesson. In addition, the course “Entrepreneurship and Business Management” provided for 2 course hours per week and which is aimed at instilling “follow up of economic developments, selection of field of activity and development of business establishment ideas” competencies to students under the vocational training programs in vocational and technical education schools and institutions and students are provided with the opportunity to take this course electively at 11th or 12th class.

In the technology and design course provided for 7th and 8th classes in general education, students are encouraged to convert their knowledge into a product by developing creative ideas with an interdisciplinary manner and the project studies of students which are the outcome of their innovative and entrepreneurial skills are exhibited. Educational program of “entrepreneurship” course provided in general secondary schools has been developed and is still being applied.

Since 2012 KOSGEB validates the entrepreneurship courses provided in higher education institutions in accordance with the criteria determined by KOSGEB  as “KOSGEB Applied Entrepreneurship Training” upon request of such institutions. Therefore, students who took entrepreneurship courses in high school will have a "KOSGEB Applied Entrepreneurship Training Certificate" and they will be entitled to make an application for “New Entrepreneur Support” of KOSGEB when they establish a business. Such implementation led to a significant increase in the number of entrepreneurship courses opened at higher education. 

 

Non-formal and informal learning

Aim of the topic Entrepreneurship culture policy in the Turkish Entrepreneurship Strategy and Action Plan (2015-2018) is to improve formal and non-formal education programs for entrepreneurship at any level of education through implementations concentrated on promotion and rewarding of entrepreneurial role models, to enhance quality of entrepreneurship trainings.

In the Law on Establishment of KOSGEB No 3624 following duties are mentioned: to provide support for entrepreneurship training; to determine training subjects to be needed by enterprises and to provide trainings for such issues. In this sense, KOSGEB provides Applied Entrepreneurship Trainings anywhere in Turkey through its Provincial Directorates. KOSGEB Applied Entrepreneurship Trainings are the trainings aimed at ensuring that successful businesses are established by introducing entrepreneurs business plan concept and generalization of entrepreneurship culture and which cover at least 46 hours of theoretical and 24 hours of workshop studies on entrepreneurship qualities, development of business idea, business plan concept and components. The basic entrepreneurship training is composed of classroom training and workshops and 70 hours in total. Attendees are provided with Applied Entrepreneurship Training Participation Certificate at the end of the training program.

The public education centres engaged in educational activities under the Regulation on Non-formal Education Institutions of the Ministry of National Education provide open educations in the field of Entrepreneurship in addition many other fields.General Directorate for Life Long learning which is a dependent directorate of Ministry of National Education provides non-formal education opportunities in a series of fields  including handicrafts, weaving, stone and wood dressing, journalism, marketing, transportation services, hospitality services, information technologies etc. in appropriate state buildings. Apart from this, ministries, agencies and other public institutions can provide non-formal education opportunities special to entrepreneurship in their respective fields of work. For instance in the Youth Centers which are dependent local units of Ministry of Youth and Sports, entrepreneurship trainings are procured to young people.  

One of the duties of the Turkish Entrepreneurship Council is to generalize entrepreneurship trainings at formal and non-formal education level.

The Vocational Qualifications Institution (VQI) is engaged basically in activities relating to recognition of former learnings and validation of non-formal and free learnings. The VQI ensures recognition and certification of learning acquisitions determined in the national qualifications through authorization of professional organizations, employee-employer unions, units of universities engaged in certification of personnel, independent personnel Certification Bodies.

 

Educators support in entrepreneurship education

According to the Law on Establishment of KOSGEB one of its duties is “to establish applied Technical Training Centres in order for development of Educational Experts to train the personnel to work at the Service Centres in special fields, organization of non-formal education programs, identification of trainings needs of enterprises and provision of necessary trainings”.

Objectives determined by the Ministry of National Education in the Turkish Entrepreneurship Strategy and Action Plan (2015-2018) include conduct of teachers training, studies aimed at taking into consideration of ability to give entrepreneurship training in development and implementation of teachers’ qualifications, development of working methods for cooperation between industries (education and business) and introduction of good practice examples of entrepreneurship training in website of the Board of Education and Discipline.

“The Cooperation protocol for Development of Entrepreneurship” was made by the Ministry of National Education (MEB), the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology (BSTB) and TUBITAK. According to that protocol 4 programmer from the Directorate General for Vocational and Technical Education and 120 teachers in total (at least one teacher from each of 81 provinces) were provided with a two-day innovation training and a five-day entrepreneurship training. The teachers engaged in education of other teachers in their provinces.