Horizontal Skills Mismatch in Vocational Education in Turkey: The Reasons for Out-of-Field Employment

Abstract

As a type of skills mismatch, horizontal skills mismatch (HM) is a particularly important problem for vocational education and training (VET) in Turkey because the majority of VET graduates work in a different field than the one in which they were educated. This study aims to determine the reasons why some VET graduates in Turkey work in fields other than their original field of study. For this purpose, we have employed a sequential mixed-model research design, first conducting face-to-face interviews with 20 VET graduates and then applying a questionnaire to VET graduates that elicited 4,863 responses. The study uses descriptive analysis for the qualitative data from the interviews and an open-ended item from the questionnaire. The qualitative results show the most common reasons for VET graduates’ employment out of their field of study to include being unable to find a job in their field of study, low wages, lack of necessary vocational skills, lack of experience, and working conditions. Quantitative results show VET graduates to want to be employed in their field of study and to make significant efforts in finding jobs that match their field. We have concluded HM to be a common problem and all the factors influencing VET graduates’ out-of-field employment to be related to a weak relationship between VET and the Turkish labor market.