"BELTEK" PROJECT FOR THE TRAINING AND

EMPLOYABILITY OF WOMEN iN TURKEY

ERiŞEN YAVUZ

ÇELIKÖZ NADIR

ŞAHIN MEHMET

KAPlcıoôLu M. ÜsMAN KuRTKAN

ATAŞ SAIT

AKYOL CEMAL

GıRGIN ÇAGLA

Selcuk University, Turkey

This is a case study based on BELTEK, which is a training organisation under Ankara metropolitan Municipality in Turkey. BELTEK is one of the initiatives aiming to train women and help to boost their employability. in this descriptive study, the goals, structure, training activities for the training and employability of women are put under discussion so that this study, based on BELTEK, can bring out new suggestions and innovations addressing to women as a disadvantageous group in the lifelong learning process.

Keywords: further education, women education, employment of women, lifelong leaming

Introduction

In our age, it is a generally accepted fact that "human" is the most important and valuable investment tool for democratisation, modemisation, development and competition. Nearly al] the nations are giving more emphasis on policies and practices to this end. In this context, "training and employment of women" is one of the current issues under discussion. The fact that women, in nearly all the countries, have a lower position compared to men has been regarded as a major topic. Thus, "training and employment of women" has been an indicator for the development level of the countries. However, compared to other EU countries, the level of training and employability is much lower in Turkey. This case is one of the

fundamental obstacles for national development and employability rate; thus, it is regarded as a very important issue in the EU process. Therefore, the training of women, their position and role in their famil ies and labour force are of primary importance as the major items of agenda to be discussed. If the training of women, who make up of nearly half of the whole population and have important roles for the future generations, draws sufficient attention, it will not only help them to have self confidence and esteem but also enable them to contribute to production, thus to development, in parallel with their position in the society. There are efforts in Turkey, in a fast transformation and improvement phase, to train women and employ them. This has been in accord with the accep-

666

Beltek Project... /667

tance of "lifelong learning" as an efficientfactor in formal or state organisations aswell as in informal or non-governmentaltraining organisations.

Training and employment are amongmajor indications of "Human Develop-ment Reports", which was firstly issuedby UNDP in 1990. Training and employ-ment status of women are consideredwithin significant indications. It is knownto most of us that there is a close relationbetween well-educated human force anddevelopment levels of countries in everyfield. In order to compete in a global world,every country should make more invest-ment into the training of society. In fact,globalisation, competition, emphasis onquality, rapid changes and improvementsin technology, modernization, andimprovement in democracy demand for anincrease in the productive employment,and an increase in unemployment at a largeextent has directed the focus on the train-ing requiring a higher rate of womenparticipation into work force.

The aim of this study is to examine theproject of BELTEK, which is regarded asa sample practice dealing with the deter-mination of the position of women,comprising nearly half of the population ofTurkey and the examination of the rela-tionship between training and employmentover training, which is of great importancefor social improvement, development, wel-fare and democracy throughout the world.

An Overlook to the Training andEmployment of Women in IXirkey

"Investing into the training and educa-tion of women is one of the tools to obtain

sustainable development and economicalgrowth as well as higher social and eco-nomical profit" (Ka.Der, 2003). In a woridwith a rapid globalisation, achievement ofan economical growth seems to be impos-sible in the countries that cannot obtainsocial development adequately. Trainingand employment of women have been sig-nificant determinants of social andeconomical development recently. Repub-lic of Turkey has put an emphasis on theimprovement of the status of women, ingeneral, and on the education of womenand girls, in particular, by signing inter-national documents in addition to carryingout the reforms related with this issue fromits establishment onwards. Article 10 ofConvention of Eliminating DiscriminationAgainst Women (CEDAW), which is oneof these documents signed in 1985,requires "... taking all precautions need-ed for the elimination of everydiscrimination against women in order thatcountries being a party guarantee to makethem have equal rights with men at edu-cation..". According to Beijing Action Planissued following Fourth Conference ofWorld Women gathered in Beijing as theconference of commitments in 1995 andsigned by Turkey as well, inequality andshortages of training and education areunder the responsibility of governments,nongovernmental organizations, privatesector and international community and isone of 12 critical fields where society iscalled to make strategic actions. Besides allthese. World Declaration of Education forEverybody (Jomtien - Tayland, 1990),Action Platform of International HumanRights Conference (Vienna, 1993) and

668 / Education Vol. 130 No. 4

Action Plan for International Developmentand Population Conference (Cairo, 1994)are the documents signed by Turkey.

In the first 10 years following the estab-lishment of Turkish Republic, there becamea great development by both forming amodem organization of state and creatinga reconstruction process of Turkish soci-ety. The most important change affectingTurkish women directly is the acceptanceof "the Law of Combination of Instruc-tion", issued in 1924 and aiming atgathering education under one umbrella. Inthat way, women obtained the right of edu-cation, which is the most basic right ofcitizenship. In Turkey, where basic edu-cation is compulsory from theestablishment of the republic onwards, therate of literacy, which was only 10% withthe acceptance of Turkish alphabet in 1928,started to increase for both man andwomen. Making our woman benefit fromevery stage and field of education withoutconsidering gender is emphasized at "BasicLaw for National Education" under no1739. On the other hand, the principle ofequality in education is included in Arti-cle 10 and 40 of the Constitution of 1982(Çetin,2003).

Despite the fact that all kinds of edu-cational rights were granted to women inthe period of republic, there have still beenso many problems over enabling womenbenefit from educational opportunities andfundamental shortages in education, andthese problems still exist, with an excep-tion of some positive improvements ineducational indications dealing withwomen.

As an example, in the earliest years of

the Republic, in 1935, literacy rate of allpopulation in Turkey was 19.3%, but only9.81 % of it was of women. Thanks to greatefforts, 55 years after this data, literacyrate of adults throughout the countryreached 78.4% in total, being 67.4 % forwoman, based on the data of 1990. In theyear 2006, adult literacy rate reached88.1% in the nationwide and it was 80.4%for women (TUÎK, 2008). But 20% of adultwomen population is still illiterate. Whenwe examine the rates of schooling in for-mal education in 2006, which is one of themost important indicators of education forwomen, it is remarkable that 87.16% ofwomen were schooled at primary level andit was 51.95% at secondary level, but therate was only 17.41% at higher educationlevel (MNE, 2009). In addition, accordingto the data of 1998, in terms of the yearwhen an average education is given, whichis considered to be a significant indicator,women in Turkey have a five-year educa-tion on average (TUÍK, 2008).

As is clear, even though the number ofthose educational opportunities and thosebenefiting from them have increased, theeducation granted to woman is not at sucha level as to accelerate the change andimprovement in the society and to make herjoin in production in a more effective way.An improvement in the educational levelof woman should be regarded as one ofthe indicators of development. The con-tribution of an educated woman intoworkforce is higher compared to that ofan uneducated one and it leads to a remark-able increase in the economical resourcesof countries.

Woman in industrialized and pre-indus-

Beltek Project... /669

try communities have been involved insuch economical activities and workforce,known as value-creating jobs and efforts.There is a unanimous belief that partici-pation of women into workforce variesdepending on location, time and condi-tions and that it is currently in a significantprocess of change. "The Case Report forWomen Employment in Turkey" (Ya§ar,2007) shows that woman employmentdecreases in Turkey while it increasesthroughout the world. According to thereport, the number of women not partici-pated in the workforce between the years1995 and 2005 increased to 276000. It isindicated that only one out of four womenworks and that a fourth of working peopleis composed of women. In addition, thefollowing were also determined in thereport: woman is considered to be respon-sible for housework and child care due todivision of labour based on social role inTurkey. Such a case is one of the reasonshindering women from taking place inworkforce. The fact that the jobs allocat-ed to women are limited, the workingconditions are heavy and the prices are lowlead them to think that working is not soattractive. While women employment inthe past was higher in the rural area thanthat of urban area, employability of womendecreases rapidly due to the decline in theagricultural employment rate. The prob-lem of lack of employment in Turkey isactually the problem of lack of women inworkforce. Even though the rate of school-ing for women is lower than that of men,the educational level of urban womanlabourers is higher. Women in the ruralarea are employed in small family busi-

nesses at the expense of their education.The level of education for women and heremployability can be considered in paral-lel with each other. As it was emphasizedin the report, there is a close relationbetween the educational opportunities andemployment opportunities for women.

The rate of employability is lower com-pared to that of men in Turkey. Accordingto the data of the State Statistics Institute,while total rate of employability of womenin 1955 was 43%, it declined to 40.3% in1960, to 37.9 in 1965, 37.5% in 1970,35.2% in 1975,34.5% in 1990 and 24.8%in 2005. While the rate of employability ofwomen in urban area was 19.3% in 2005,it was 33.7% in the rural area. The inequal-ity of gender in employment rate in Turkeyis striking compared to the rates world-wide. The rate of women employability ismore than 50% in the countries of Euro-pean Union (Tokgöz, 2007; T.C. KadmmStatüsü Genel Müdüriügü, 2009). Turkeyranks around the lowest ones in OECDcountries (Hadler, 1993). Such factors asthe fact that men employability is preferredat a higher level than that of women, thatwomen leave agricultural sector owing tothe increase in migration from rural areato urban life, that women cannot beemployed due to the fact that they are une-ducated and inexperienced together withthe migration from the rural area wherethey work at unpaid jobs, the compulsoryeducation was increased from 5 years to 8years and the number of woman enteringhigher education are some of the factorsaffecting this case (Berber&Eser, 2008;Kücükkalay, 1998;). In addition, lack oftraining, knowledge and skills is another

670 / Education Vol. 130 No. 4

ditnensioti to be highlighted for the rela-tion between training of women and theiremployment rate. According to the data of2000,18.9% of working women in Turkeyare illiterate, and 53.1% are graduates ofa primary school, 4.2% are graduates of asecondary school, 12.3% of them are grad-uates of a high school and 11.5% aregraduates of a university (Kayhan, 2005).Such a case requires life - long trainingpractices not only for unemployed womenbut also for employed ones. It is essentialto consider developing widespread edu-cation that will enable women throughoutthe county to improve in every aspect forsocial improvement and development.

Widespread education comprises allprogrammed educational activities aimingat making people acquire knowledge, skillsand an occupation, and supplying indi-vidual and social development. There havebeen various widespread education choic-es for women in Turkey. Some of them arePublic Education Centres within the Min-istry of Education, General Directorate ofApprenticeship and Widespread Educa-tion, Practical Art Schools for Girls withinGeneral Directorate of Technical Educationfor Girls, Institutes of Maturing and Voca-tional Courses, vocational courses withinGeneral Directorate of Commerce andTourism Teaching, vocational courses car-ried out by other ministries, writing andreading courses for women and, some othercourses to provide tem with skills and occu-pations, held by governmental ornon-governmental organizations. In addi-tion, many municipalities organize similarfree of charge courses. One of them isBELTEK training course project. BEL-

TEK course, which is considered to be asample project in cooperation with uni-versity and municipality, is regarded as aremarkable contribution to the educationand employment of women. The subjectmatter of this paper is to present this modeltraining course with its merits and short-comings as well.

BELTEK as a Project for the Trainingand Employment of Women

According to Ankara MetropolitanMunicipality Activity Report (2008); BEL-TEK training course project has beencarried out within the framework of anagreement between Ankara MetropolitanMunicipality and Gazi University signedon 6th October 1999 and was initiated soas to make citizens acquire knowledge andskills, to realize integrity, to train peopleaccording to certain standards of city andvocational needs for SMEs free of charge.The main objective of the project is toimprove cooperation between industry andlocal administrations, and help to find solu-tions for unemployment problem in Turkeyin general sense. While giving a speech toclose one term of this course. Prof. Dr.Kadri Yamaç, the rector of Gazi universi-ty, stressed the importance of this trainingcourse saying that "this course is a veryimportant in the frame work of lifelonglearning in Europe and one of the greatesttraining courses in the world for the acqui-sition of basic skills for employment". Thisproject aims to:

• improve cooperation between univer-sity, industry and local administrationsand provide to use the investments intoman efficiently.

Beltek Project... /671

• facilitate access to up-to-date knowl-edge and present a new structure ofeducation by changing the approach tothe educational system from memori-sation to skill acquisition making use ofup-to-date information with an eye todigest and develop it.

• bridge the gap between qualified andintermediate labour force.

• putting an effort to transform theunemployed youth into a qualifiedadvantageous group.

• train human force to work with sophis-ticated technology.

• help people keep up with innovationsand changes at every stage and enablethem to become a life long learner.This course is organized for three-

month periods at 8 main divisions and 66branches within the Directorate ofCultural and Social Affairs of Ankara Met-ropolitan Municipality. Some of thedivisions and branches are as follows:• Department of Electronics - Comput-

er (Radio -Television Maintenance andRepair, Computer Operation, WebDesign).

• Department of Electricity (ElectricityOperation, Repair and Maintenance ofElectrical Equipments).

• Department of Printing (ComputerAssisted Graphic Design, Photography,Graphic Design on Web)

• Department of Construction (Comput-er Assisted Architectural Drawing,Topography, Architectural Administra-tion).

• Department of Furniture and Decora-tion (Wooden Gift Production, WoodenStatues and Natural Figures, Comput-

er Assisted Furniture Design).• Department of Metal - Casting - Mod-

elling (Art of Metal Decoration).• Department of Machinery (Computer

Assisted Drawing Design: CAD - 1,Technical Drawing, Business Organi-zation and Quality Control andAdministration, Visual Basic and Indus-trial Applications).

• Department of Deanship Branches(Basic Computer Usage, Public Rela-tions, Methods of TV Film Making,Orating, Foreign Language, TourismOperating, Portfolio Administration).So far, 72.608 people have benefited

from these courses mentioned abovebetween the years 1999-2008. Almost 37%(27.591) of the participants within the peri-od of ten years were women. Accordingto the data of 2007,2% of the women par-ticipating in the courses were graduates ofa primary school, 5% were graduates of asecondary school, 45% were graduates ofa high school and 48% were graduates ofa higher education.

One of the important features of thiscourse is that anybody, whether employedor unemployed, can join it. The courseshave been arranged in such a way as tocover innovation and change as well asserving the needs of the market comply-ing with the changing needs of current life.The courses meet the needs of technicalstaff of SMEs working in Ankara at a largeextent. Most of the graduates are employedat SMEs acting in Organized IndustrialZones, and some of the participants attend-ing the courses of Electricity, Computer,Furniture, and Vocational Education canopen their own businesses.

672 / Education Vol. 130 No. 4

ConclusionThe issue of woman training and

employment is regarded as one of the indi-cators of sustainable development andimprovement all over the world. Howev-er, there have been serious problems oversupplying equal training and employmentopportunities for women in most countriesof the world and this is a case for Turkeyas well (ETF, 2009). From the establish-ment of the Republic onwards, even thoughsome important improvements have beenattained, Turkey ranks at the lowest levelsconcerning women training and employ-ment at international level. Some importantefforts of Turkey, trying to keep up withother countries by taking rapid steps in thepath of development and improvement,have attracted much attention nowadays.Efforts concerning the access into Euro-pean Union have a motivating role in thisfield. In Turkey, where there have been agreat many efforts aiming at providingwomen with training and employmentwithin a sense of life long education inrecent years, the project of BELTEK cours-es carried out in cooperation withuniversity and municipality is regarded asa significant example for European LifeLong Leaming Projects. With this project,tens of thousands of women have beentrained and directed to employment. Hold-ing such courses that aim to improveeducational, economical and social posi-tions of women widespread can beconsidered an important effort in terms ofdevelopment and improvement.

However, taking the national and inter-national importance of this course, someproblems regarding the organisation should

be expressed clearly here. First of all, BEL-TEK should have a well designed websitein some other languages other than Turk-ish. The documentation and statistics areof high importance for the sustainability,visibility and promotion of this project. Aconfidential part besides a public part canbe provided to help the researchers, likeus, who are interested in such courses. Inthis case, the visibility of such courses willboost thanks to such researches at nation-al and international level. To help theproject to be promoted at national and inter-national level requires at least the mainpoints mentioned here taking its impor-tance into account.

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Çetin, F. (2003). Cumhuriyet döneminde kadinegitimi, Milli Egitim Dergisi, 160, 140-153.

ETF (The European Trainin Foundation).(2008). Women in education andemployment 2010. Retrieved September, 15,2008 from the World Wide Web:www.etf.europa.eu/pubmgmt.nsf/(getAttachmp.ntV3nR37F,l RDD93E04F.C12571AA0036E14n/3;File/NOTE6RNDPF.pdf

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