Prof. Dr. Vedat Işıkhan Participated in the Opening Ceremony of the ”İŞKUR My Career Fellow" Campaign

Within the scope of the ”Labour Market Support Program for Young People Who are Neither in Education nor Employment (NEET PRO)" aimed at supporting young people between the ages of 15 and 29 who are unemployed, who do not continue their education or who do not look for a job, with comprehensive and holistic labour market supports, the van of "İŞKUR My Career Fellow" campaign set out after the ceremony in which Prof. Dr. Vedat Işıkhan,  The Minister of Labour and Social Security participated.

The Opening Ceremony of the “İŞKUR My Career Fellow” Campaign within the scope of NEET PRO was held at the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR).

Young People from 15 Provinces will be Informed by the Experts in the “İŞKUR My Career Fellow” Van

Within the scope of the NEET PRO Technical Support Project, carried out by the Ministry of Labour and Social Security İŞKUR, “İŞKUR My Career Fellow” campaign van will trot off to stop in 15 different cities between 12 September- 25 October 2023 to present İŞKUR services, raise awareness among unemployed young people aged 15-29, who do not continue education or who are not in the labor force so that they can register with İŞKUR to benefit from employment opportunities. 

The campaign van, which departed from Ankara after the opening ceremony, will first head to Mardin. After Mardin, it will arrive at various provinces and the experts will provide young people with information. The van will be arriving at the following stops respectively: Van, Erzurum, Rize, İzmir, Edirne, Bursa, Eskişehir, Afyon, Konya, Mersin, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Sivas and Samsun.

There will be activities in the area of the van positioned in city centers, where vocational interests and skills tests as well as photography activities are going to be provided. Besides, job and vocational counsellors will guide young people on their career paths by introducing İŞKUR's services.

"Young People are Our Future”

Minister Işıkhan made a speech at the ceremony reminding that the project called NEET PRO had been operating for about 2 years and pointed out the following: “With the project, we aim to support our young people between the ages of 15-29, who are not involved in education, nor in employment, with a more comprehensive and sensitive approach towards individual needs throughout the job searching process. The concept of NEET, which is used to describe the young population who are not integrated into education, nor employment due to their inability to develop their human capital, has become an increasingly important problem on a global level. Today, the global young population is approaching 2 billion. When we compare our country with the European countries, we know that Türkiye is the country with the youngest population. Young people are our future.” he said.

Emphasizing that they offer a wide range of services, particularly the Active Workforce Programs constantly maintained through İŞKUR, and others such as “JOURNEYMAN Program”, "Internship Portal", “İŞKUR on Campus”, "Business Clubs", “Career Days”, “Virtual Employment Fairs”, Minister Işıkhan noted that:

“We notice that taking more special measures for NEETs has become an important policy area and a necessity for İŞKUR. According to the 2nd quarterly data of TUİK (Turkish Statistical Institute), the proportion of young people who are neither in education nor in employment- NEET- is 20.8 percent. As you know, most of the NEETs are considered hard-to-reach groups. For this reason, we set certain goals and roadmaps in our Medium-Term Program, which we published last week, especially for our young people who are neither in education nor in employment.”

"Programs and Activities to Increase the Career Awareness of Young People will be Broadened"

Stating that programs focusing on vocational training, competencies and skills will be implemented in order to stimulate the integration of young people who are neither in education nor employment, into education and employment, Minister Işıkhan said “Measures will be taken to ensure that there is at least one person who is employed in each and every family, and that should primarily be the young member of the family. Programs and activities that will increase the career awareness of young people for the professions of the future will be promoted. For this reason, we aim to reach out to hard-to-reach young population with our “Campaign Van” that will set off today, get in touch with them and make them feel that we are with them.”

"İŞKUR Career Fellow Will Always Be There, By Your Side”

Minister Işıkhan continued his words as follows:

“Today I am delighted to be starting this campaign that will help our young people build their future. On this occasion I would like to tell all my young brothers and sisters that ‘İŞKUR Career Fellow will always be there offering you the support you need’. I would like to express my gratitude to our General Manager as well as all of our İŞKUR staff and my valuable colleagues who contributed to the project.”

The opening ceremony was attended by Laurent Guirkinger, Head of the Humanitarian and Social Development Department of the European Union Delegation to Turkey; Luca Azzoni, Team Leader of the NEET PRO Technical Support Project; Samet Güneş, General Director of İŞKUR, and Ömer Faruk Cantekin, Head of the EU and Financial Assistance Department.