For smooth school-to-work transition for every adolescent: Skills Pledge

June 14, 2022, Istanbul - UNICEF Türkiye Business Advisory Board joined today a Skills Pledge campaign to support the Ministry of National Education’s efforts to provide vocational and technical education opportunities and facilitate transition of adolescents and young people to work life.

“UNICEF supports this campaign to provide work-based learning and mentoring opportunities for at least 10,000 young people by June 2023. There is a need to support initiatives that ease school-to-work transition for every adolescent in Türkiye and we count on the critical role of our private sector partners”, said UNICEF Türkiye Representative Regina De Dominicis.

According to TURKSTAT, almost 1 in 4 (24%) young people aged 15-24 in Türkiye are not engaged in education, training or work. At the same time, Turkish companies are looking for new, qualified employees with the 21^st Century skills.

The Skills Pledge is anchored in the Work-Based Learning scheme of the Ministry of National Education. “Mesleğim Hayatım İş ve Staj Portal”, established in partnership between the Ministry of National Education and TOBB, will connect employers and adolescents all over the country.

The large majority of UNICEF Türkiye Business Advisory Board members already agreed today to join the skills pledge presented to them at the meeting led by Regina De Dominicis, UNICEF Representative to Türkiye, with the presence of a Youth representative from the Global Generation Unlimited Initiative (GenU) Secretariat and Turkish National Committee for UNICEF.

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About the UNICEF Türkiye Business Advisory Board:

The UNICEF Türkiye Business Advisory Board is a high-level advisory body comprised of private sector entities with inclusion of selected leaders from multi-lateral organizations, as well as young people themselves that provides strategic direction and guidance to promote the objectives and planned results of GenU Turkey, as well as other areas of strategic importance to child rights.  The Advisory Board in its first years of work will leverage the breadth of practical experience and technical expertise available in Turkey, connect stakeholders with interest and capacity to support the skills development, employment, and empowerment of young people at-scale, and mobilize and enable collaboration and contributions to the GenU goals in Turkey. Current Board members were selected based on scale and regional distribution of companies, commitments to equity and gender empowerment, and past experiences with corporate social responsibility activities and sustainability projects.

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For more info: Can Remzi Ergen, UNICEF Türkiye, cergen@unicef.org, +905323155687