According to the Turkish Labour Law and the Law Regarding Vocational Training, certain employers are obliged to provide skills training to students and employ internees.
Initially, this has to be clarified that, according to the Vocational Training Act No. 3308, enterprises employing ten or more personnel are obliged to provide skills training to the students of vocational and technical education schools and institutions, and internship and supplementary education to the students of vocational and technical secondary education schools and institutions, not less than five percent of the number of their total personnel.
In determining the number of students, fractions are rounded up to whole numbers. These enterprises can make internships for students of higher education institutions engaged in vocational and technical education. Considering the training opportunities of the enterprises that remain active in the region because of natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods and fires, the above-mentioned rates for these enterprises can be changed with the proposal of the provincial vocational education board and the approval of the Ministry of Education of Republic of Turkey.
Regardless of whether they are included in the scope of vocational education or not, enterprises employing less than ten personnel may also provide their students with skills training, internship, and supplementary education in accordance with the relevant provisions of the mentioned act. In the determination of the number of students to be trained in shifts or seasonally operating enterprises, the number of personnel working in the day shift or in the season in which they operate is taken as a basis.
Within the scope of the Act No. 3308, enterprises employing ten or more personnel are notified to the provincial directorates of national education and higher education institutions in that province in the month February each year by the provincial directorates of the Labour and Employment Agency.
In the determination of the number of personnel in the enterprises, January of each year is taken as the basis, and in enterprises operating in the summer season, July is taken as basis.
Skill training is also started at the beginning of each academic year. The provinces and professions to be included in the scope of vocational training in enterprises are determined by the Ministry of Education in line with the opinion of the Vocational Education Board.
Enterprises that will provide skills training, internship, and supplementary training to ten or more students within the scope of the mentioned provisions shall establish a training unit for this purpose. In this unit, master trainers or educators who have mastery proficiency in their field and who have received business pedagogy training are assigned for the training.
In accordance with the Article 25 of the Vocational Training Act No. 3308, it is foreseen that the interns shall be paid. Therefore, the net monthly national minimum wage is taken as the basis in determining the wages of the students for the interns who are insured by their schools. In this regard, students cannot be paid less than the following amounts:
- Not less than 35 percent of the national monthly net minimum wage for engineering faculty students.
- Not less than 50 percent of the national monthly net minimum wage for 12th grade students of vocational training centres who have earned the journeyman qualification.
- Not less than 30 percent of the national monthly net minimum wage for students receiving vocational education in enterprises and students receiving internship or supplementary education in vocational and technical secondary schools and institutions.
- Finally, not less than 30 percent of the national monthly net minimum wage appropriate for the age of the candidate apprentice and apprentices.
In this sense, we advise all employers to prepare intern and trainee payrolls. Trainee wages are exempt from all legal deductions up to the gross amount of the minimum wage.
Last of all, enterprises that employ ten or more personnel and are included in the scope of vocational training by the Ministry of National Educational, but do not apply any skills training for students, are obliged to deposit a certain amount of money to the Accounting Account of the Ministry of National Education. This can be evaluated as a type of administrative fine for failing to comply with the regulation. This amount is equal to 1/3 of the net amount of the monthly minimum wage per student, and in the case that the enterprise is employing twenty or more employees, than 2/3 of the net amount of the monthly minimum wage per student failed to be employed.
