ALMP - EU Support to the Turkish Employment Organisation (İŞKUR) Project NEWS Bulletin Issue 7, July 2005 Produced by the EU-İŞKUR ALMP Project Team Latest news in the project Modernization of Physical Infrastructure of ISKUR Construction works commence The first groundbreaking ceremony under the Project for modernisation of İŞKUR offices was held in Çorum on 23 June 2005. Minister of Labour and Social Security Murat Başesgioğlu, Minister of Interior Affairs Abdülkadir AKSU, Çorum MP Ağah KAFKAS, HAK-İŞ President Salim USLU, İŞKUR General Manager Namık ATA, BAĞKUR General Manager Saner GÜNGÖR, Representatives of Employer Organisations and Trade Unions, Artisan and Craftsmen Organisations and public attended to the ceremony which was hosted by Çorum Governor Hüseyin Poroy. THANK YOU TO EVERYBODY WHO SUPPORTED US AND PARTICIPATED IN THE PROCESS. Ministers Başesgioğlu and Aksu received information from local administrators about the problems of the province. Unemployment problem Minister Başesgioğlu underlined that unemployment has become one of the most important problems of all of the OECD countries. He added that social security system of Turkey is not at the expected level so that social dimension of unemployment has become much more visible in Turkey. Minister Başesgioğlu mentioned that there as been an increase of 936.000 people in employment and employment rate increased from 40.2% to 41.3% in the first period of 2005 when compared to the same period in 2004. He added that unemployment is still very important problem of the country, even though there is a partial improvement in recent years. He said, "It is pleasing for the future of our country that we have reached the expected level in macro economy. I believe that as long as economical and political stability continues we will have progress in solving social and economical problems of the country." Vocational education programmes Minister Başesgioğlu added that active employment policies should be implemented alongside the economical growth for preventing unemployment, as is the case in other countries, and in this sense it is very important to strengthen the vocational education system.
İŞKUR General Director Namık Ata told that including Çorum 16 provincial directorate will be constructed in Turkey. Ata told that buildings will be ready by October 2005. After these speeches Minister Başesgioğlu and Aksu lay foundation for İŞKUR building and opened Bağ-Kur building. 25 May 2005, Elazığ... Groundbreaking ceremony for İŞKUR building was held on 25 May with the participation of Ministry of Labour and Social Security Undersecretary Enis Yeter and other bureaucrats. Representatives of the European Commission, who were in town for attending EU-Ministry of Labour Project on Gender Equality Seminar, also participated in the ceremony. Undersecretary Yeter told that the new İŞKUR building will reflect the changing face of İŞKUR in the 21 st century. He told that İŞKUR s services will not be limited to jobsearch activities but also develop skills of jobseekers. Yeter underlined that Turkey has prepared the national employment strategy in accordance with European Employment Strategy and İŞKUR will have various job programmes in order to solve unemployment problem, which is common nearly in all countries. İŞKUR General Director Namık Ata told that, in combat with unemployment around the world all PES have assumed a bigger responsibility right now and that the problem of unemployment could only be solved by common effort of İŞKUR and other social partners. Mr. Ata also gave information on the ALMP project. Pictures from groundbreaking ceremony in Elazığ For further information on Modernisation of İŞKUR Offices you can check the article on page 7 prepared by our experts.
New Opportunities Grant Scheme Ambassador Kretschmer visits Erzurum, Artvin, Trabzon and Samsun The Head of the Delegation of the European Commission to Turkey, Ambassador Hansjörg Kretschmer, visited the four Turkish provinces of Erzurum, Artvin, Trabzon, and Samsun from 5 June-10 June 2005. Ambassador Kretschmer met with local authorities and representatives of NGOs in all of the provinces. Minister of Labour and Social Security addressed to unemployed "One of the 5 young people is unemployed and we must overcome this problem. We are not leaving you alone with unemployment and we will put all our effort for preventing unemployment," said Minister of Labour and Social Security Murat Başesgioğlu during the ceremony held for the Ostim Service Center Cooperation Protocol between MoLSS and for certificate ceremony of the ALMP Ostim Human Resources Training Center Project. In his speech in Ankara-OSTİM Apprenticeship Training Foundation Başesgioğlu mentioned that that all services related to SSK, Bağ-Kur, İŞKUR and work security will be given from one center so the ones working in OSTİM won t loose time, and the center would be a model for other industrial regions. Minister Başesgioğlu mentioned that active employment programmes will be implemented and as long as political and economical stability continues unemployment problem will be solved, and as a realistic target the unemployment will decrease to 10%. Minister Başesgioğlu added that private sector is also responsible as the public sector for decreasing unemployment. Ambassador Kretschmer stopped by Artvin, Camili on 7 June to examine the queen bee breeding by women trained within the scope of the GS project conducted by TEMA Foundation. In the evening, he watched a documentary on the TEMA Camili Project. Hansjörg Kretschmer held press conferences in Trabzon 8 June and Samsun 10 June. Final beneficiaries of the New Opportunities Grant Scheme courses are getting their certificates Later in the ceremony Minister Başesgioğlu gave the certificates to trainees of the ALMP New Opportunities Grant Scheme OSTİM Human Resources Training Centre Project. 25 May 2005, Elazığ... Ministry of Labour and Social Security Undersecretary Enis Yeter and EU delegation including EU Commission Foreign Affairs Director Lisa Pavan visited the Elazığ Chamber of Trade and Commerce's (ETSO) "Entrepreneurship Course" funded under EU ALMP. ETSO Chairman Suat Öztürk told that a total of 200 trainees would benefit from the Entrepreneurship Project in 4 groups. Öztürk said, "Previously we had 30 participants and %20 employment guarantee but we have reached to %50. And, we are putting so much effort for infrastructure and project preparation in the EU Process. In this context we have another project that will be
implemented at the end of June by participation of 15 chambers from Turkey." Öztürk added that thanks to the EU projects young people began to enter the labour market. view from a visit to Grant Scheme Project of ETSO EU Commission Foreign Affairs Director Lisa Pavan said that she was impressed to see that EU activities are successfully implemented in Elazığ. Pavan added that such implementations show that Turkey has achieved a progress in legislative reforms and in practice. Project Material, well meeting the visibility rules... 6-7 June 2005 Artvin... Views from visit to Grant Scheme Project NTV covered the project on Hayatın Ritmi programme broadcast on 17-24 June 2005 in two parts, thank you for their kind interest Artvin; project area Artvin 6-7 June 2005... Journalists followed the visit. Queen bee and transfer pot was interesting Further information about the grant beneficiaries, project topics, distribution of grants according to the regions, target groups, etc. is available at www.iskur.gov.tr or www.iskurabprojesi.org.
Modernisation of İŞKUR offices Active Labour Market Programmes Project is based on an agreement signed by Turkish Government and European Commission with the aim to contribute to the solution of the unemployment problem in Turkey. ALMP project has started on 21 October 2003. The overall budget of the project is 50 million Euros and 25% of this amount is borne by the Republic of Turkey. The amount allocated for the construction of modern employment offices, which constitutes one of the activities planned under the project, is around 8 million Euros. Within the scope of ALMP, the European Union is modernising the offices of İŞKUR. In 16 provinces (Bandırma, Gebze, Antalya, Samsun, Çorum, Niğde, Tokat, Kilis, Hatay, Elazığ, Diyarbakır, Muş, Siirt, Ağrı, Iğdır and Ardahan) new buildings will be constructed whereas in 4 others (Ankara, İstanbul, Kayseri, Aydın-Söke) current buildings will be renovated. The buildings will become operable by the end of 2005. The design of the buildings complies with European standards, and will be able to meet the requirements of modern employment services. Modern İŞKUR offices will not only be places where the registration procedures of the unemployed are conducted but also where representatives of local labour market come together. The new services provided in the İŞKUR offices will ensure that a greater number of clients (employers, unemployed, representatives of enterprises and institutions) benefit from the institution. Some services these new services are being implemented by İŞKUR Pilot Offices. Services which proved out to be useful are mentioned below: In order to give a transparent information about opportunities on the labour market, locally and nationwide, there should be an area for display of information. The information should be displayed on billboards and bookshelves. In many countries also other media, like e.g. video and VCD are used for such purposes. Material prepared under the project will be send to model offices. The job seekers will have access to special self service computers (kiosks). These kiosks need to be placed in an open area where there is also staff surveillance. While today registration is performed in big rooms, often at long open desks, there should also be adjacent suitable work places for face to face interviews with job seekers with special needs. Job search trainings should be regularly performed at ISKUR offices, as well as other meetings for information or training with groups of job seekers. ISKUR will play a more significant role in the implementation of a national employment and HRD policy than today. This involves meeting with representatives for the provincial and local governments, with employers and employees organisations, other public and private institutions. ISKUR should be equipped with suitable meeting rooms to house regular meetings with the social partners. Internal staff training plays an important role in modern institutions. To facilitate for ISKUR to give staff training not only in Ankara and Söke but also e. g. in the southern and eastern provinces, some of the bigger ISKUR offices in those provinces will be equipped with big conference rooms. There are also a range of other services that today are available in European Employment services but have not yet been introduced in Turkey, mostly due to lack of staff and premises. Some of these services are Group interview techniques for vocational guidance Job clubs for unemployed Seminars for jobseekers and employers Services to newly opened enterprises like interviews with the candidates and tests for selection
To give maximum flexibility to different solutions of arranging the office area the construction of the new buildings will have raised floors at the entrance floor. This allows for an easy and inexpensive way of altering walls and cable network according to different needs. Briefly; new İŞKUR offices are designed so as to provide an easy access to services. These offices will support İŞKUR s vision and changing image when İŞKUR assumes an important role in Turkey s economical and social policies and becomes a nationally recognized leader in promoting HRD and is able to design, develop and implement effective policy measures and services aligned with the European Employment Strategy. İŞKUR will open new offices not only for the staff but also for meeting demands of all social partners and these offices will be attractive and meeting points for them. Training activities... 1-18 June 2005: Training to Grant Project Beneficiaries in Istanbul. 10-11-January 2005: Communication and Social Dialogue between İŞKUR General Directorate and Pilot Offices Seminar. 14-17-February 2005: Grant Scheme Training. 14-19-February 2005: Management Skills Training, Houston Hotel, Ankara. 14-17-February 2005: Training to Pilot Offices Staff members, Eyüpoğlu Hotel, Ankara. 21-26 February 2005: Management Skills Training, Houston Hotel, Ankara. 28 February -5 March 2005: Management Skills Training, Houston Hotel, Ankara. 7-10 March 2005: Seminar on contacts with jobseekers (to model office staff). 2 March 2005: Seminar to auditors about private employment agencies and Pilot Offices, Houston Hotel, Ankara. Seminar given by project experts Britta Tener, Jean Charles Blanc, Claus Moller. 10 March 2005: Seminar to auditors about ALMP, Houston Hotel, Ankara. All project experts. 07-12 March 2005: Management Skills Training, İŞKUR Maltepe Training Center in Ankara. 17-22 April 2005: Management Skills Training, İŞKUR Maltepe Training Center in Ankara. 25-30 June 2005: Management Skills Training, İŞKUR Maltepe Training Center in Ankara. 05 May 2005: Pilot Office Seminar, Ordu. 10-11 May 2005: Pilot Office Seminar, Malatya. 23-28 May 2005: Management Skills Training, İŞKUR Maltepe Training Center in Ankara. 30 May-01 June 2005: Job Search Skills Training. 30 May-04 June 2005: Management Skills Training (auditors), Houston Hotel, Ankara. 02-04 June 2005: Job Search Skills Training. 20-22 June 2005: Job search skills training, İŞKUR Maltepe Training Center in Ankara. Given by Deniz KARTAL, Hürriyet SAÇ, Britta TENER, Jean DURONSOY. 20-24 June 2005: Social Dialogue Training, Pilot Office Staff and Social Partners, Houston Hotel, Ankara. Given by Erling HAVE, Yusuf YARDIMCI, Claus Nue MOLLER 01 July 2005: Model Office Seminar in Erzurum (Ağrı, Ardahan, Iğdır, Muş and Siirt Provincial Directors participated). Given by Britta Tener. 27 June - 02 July 2005: Management Skills Training, Houston Hotel, Ankara.
Study tours and twinnings... 30 January-06 February 2005 Ireland Study Tour 06-13 February - 2005 France Human Resources and Training organisation 04-10 April 2005 Sweden Twinning 04-10 April 2005 Denmark Twinning 11-17 April 2005 Austria Twinning 24 April 01 May 2005 Austria Study Tour 27 June - 03 July 2005 Sweden Twinning 27 June-03 July 2005 France Twinning 27 June-03 July 2005 Denmark Twinning New publications... 1. Poster for jobseekers 2. Brochure for jobseekers (being prepared for publication) 3. "Why İŞKUR"; brochures for jobseekers and employers (3 types) 4. Interactive CD and info package for Turkish National Assembly and Social Partners 5. Bookmark for İŞKUR visibility (design stage) 6. Labels for Grant Scheme Project Properties (3 sizes) Recent publications
Recent publications Views from project activities in various provinces İŞKUR area in the e-government exhibition. March 2005 Kırıkkale Project visit April 2005- Visit to Provincial Directorate Project Partners are informed in the field.
İstanbul Views from project activities Artvin Artvin-Karagöl. Artvin- Camili Village Elderly Chorus and fellows
We would like to share this beauty with you For further information about any of the items in this Bulletin, for detailed information about the ALMP activities or for your comments and contributions İŞKUR General Directorate Atatürk Bulvarı No. 133, Bakanlıklar /ANKARA Tel: 0 312 417 0951 Tel: 0 312 425 3135 Fax: 0 312 418 0563 e-mail: proje@iskur.gov.tr e-mail: info@iskurabprojesi.org www.iskurabprojesi.org