First of these meetings was held in Gaziantep under the title of "Southeastern Vocational Education Assessment Meeting". Provincial Directors of National Education of 9 Southeastern cities, heads and managers of chambers of industry and trade and approximately 600 guests attended the meeting.

A recent amendment in the Vocational Education Law No. 3308 stipulates that 9th, 10th and 11th grade vocational education center students are paid 30 percent of the minimum wage and 12th grade students are paid 50 percent of the minimum wage. They are also insured against occupational illness and accidents. The amendment was promoted through public spots and other various media publications. As a result of raising awareness about vocational education, vocational education centers became a center of attraction and the number of students enrolled in these centers increased by 100 percent and reached 335,000.

"Academically successful students started to prefer vocational education"

Pointing out a recent paradigm shift in vocational education, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer announced that the Ministry has decided to organize meetings about vocational education in order to assess recent developments, evaluate current situations and define roadmaps.

"Important steps are taken in an effort to increase the quality of human resources of our country in the last 19 years. As a result of these efforts, academically successful students started to prefer vocational education," said Özer.

"For the first time in their history, vocational schools started to export"

Özer stressed that the quality of vocational education increased as a part of the cooperation agreements with private sector representatives.

"Vocational schools which were once neglected turned into a type of school that increased its production capacity, registered patents, exported products and were preferred by academically successful students," stated Özer.