EXTENDED SUMMARY

Vocational education offered at the high school level in our country is a unique example in terms of both the education-employment relationship and the debate over the limits of child labor. This uniqueness stems from high youth unemployment, precarization, the prevalence of the informal labor market, and the fact that students in vocational education are forced to confront these labor relations at an early age (FİSA Çocuk Hakları Merkezi, 2024: 15, 16; Aksoy, 2017: 79; Birleşik Metal-İş Sendikası, 2024). The function of Vocational Education Centers (MESEM), which are particularly prominent within vocational high schools with their discourse of “training qualified intermediate personnel,” as an education-employment model is at the center of the debate.

The MESEM model for transitioning from school to employment has a dual structure, with theoretical knowledge taught at school and practical training provided in the workplace. However, the effectiveness of this transition model is directly affected by structural problems in the system and dynamics in the labor market. According to international policy documents, vocational education supports countries’ development by training a qualified workforce and takes on the function of combating informal child labor by providing children with vocational skills in safe environments (OECD, 2023; Montobbio, 2025). The extent to which all these functions of vocational education correspond to the working conditions and current position in the labor market of MESEM students, who are an example of the education-employment model in our country, is a matter of debate. Based on this discussion, the study aims to analyze the structural problems encountered by MESEM students during applied training, which is the transition phase to employment, through the experiences and observations gained by coordinator teachers during workplace visits. Within this framework, in-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with seven coordinator teachers working in different fields at two MESEMs in Izmir, and the data was analyzed using thematic analysis methods.

According to the findings, the problems experienced by MESEM students in the workplaces where they receive practical training include: long working hours, low or late payment of apprenticeship wages, being forced to work overtime, inadequate occupational health and safety measures, being viewed as cheap labor rather than students. In particular, in some factories, students receiving practical training are given theoretical training in a classroom opened in the factory, and since the children working here are usually male apprentices, this causes these students to experience social isolation based on gender inequality. The findings are contrary to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child; Article 3 on the best interests of the child, Article 28 on children’s equal and fair access to education, and Article 29 on the principle that education should “develop the child’s personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential” are being violated (Birleşmiş Milletler, 1989). Furthermore, the provisions of Article 32 prohibiting the economic exploitation of children and their employment in hazardous work are also being violated.

According to the research findings, rather than being a system that supports children’s transition from education to employment by providing safe working environments and enabling them to develop skills, thereby facilitating their participation in the workforce as qualified labor, MESEMs indicate that children are integrated into the labor market at an early age through precarious, low-wage, and secondary forms of labor.