MEB-Approved Vocational Training in Bursa, Planned with Our Solution Partners

Article 17 of Law No. 6331 on Occupational Health and Safety sets out a clear prohibition: in hazardous and very hazardous work for which vocational training is mandatory, no one may be employed who cannot document that they have received vocational training for the work they will do. Which jobs fall within this scope is set out in the Regulation on the Vocational Training of Persons to Be Employed in Work in the Hazardous and Very Hazardous Classes, published in the Official Gazette of 13 July 2013.

Annex 1 of the regulation lists 109 jobs under 17 headings. Metallurgy, metal and metal products, wood and wood products, construction work, chemicals, spinning-weaving-clothing, food, energy, transport-type work, and warehousing and bonded storage are among these headings. For example, “cold forging and all types of welding work” appears under the metal heading, while plywood, particleboard and impregnation work appears under wood products.

Two points need to be stressed:

• What matters is the job, not the workplace. Even if your workplace is in the hazardous class, no vocational training certificate is required under this regulation if the work the employee does is not in Annex 1; in that case the provisions of Vocational Training Law No. 3308 apply.
• The certificate is required before hiring. A person who will work in a job listed in Annex 1 must have completed vocational training before being hired. The employer keeps a copy of the certificate in the personnel file and shows it to the authorities during inspections.

A vocational training certificate should not be confused with basic OHS training. Basic training gives every employee health and safety knowledge; vocational training documents that the person has been trained for the occupation they will practise. An employee covered by Annex 1 needs both certificates; one does not replace the other.

In Bursa’s dominant sectors such as automotive supply, metalworking and furniture, welding, woodworking and similar Annex 1 jobs are common, so certificate checks need to be a fixed step in the hiring process. Vocational training falls outside the scope of our OSGB authorisation. For employees without a certificate, we therefore plan MEB-approved 40-hour training modules through our solution partners, who work under protocols with the Public Education Centres affiliated with the Ministry of National Education; we identify the need, coordinate the process and track the certificates. Modules are not offered as a ready-made package; they are selected with you according to your business’s line of production.

Hazardous workplace, but the job is not in Annex 1: what then?

The regulation works job by job. An employee doing welding work in an automotive supply factory in the hazardous class is covered by Annex 1; an accounting or purchasing employee in the same factory is not. The regulation states explicitly that even if the workplace is in the hazardous class, no certificate is required under it if the work performed is not listed in Annex 1. That is why we determine certificate needs position by position, not on the basis of the workplace’s NACE code.

Position matching example

The table is illustrative; the definitive assessment is made by comparing the work actually performed in the position with the wording of the item in Annex 1. If two employees with the same job title do different work, the outcome may also differ.

Which certificate for which job?

The regulation accepts several types of document, but not every document is valid for every job. The question asked during inspections is not “is there a certificate?” but “does this certificate cover this job?”. Situations we frequently encounter:

• Only a basic OHS certificate: The basic OHS training certificate in a welder’s file does not replace vocational training.
• A diploma, but in a different field: A vocational high school diploma is not sufficient if its field is unrelated to the work performed.
• Certificate obtained at another workplace: The certificate belongs to the person; if it matches the work performed, it can be used by placing a copy in the new employer’s personnel file.
• Job has changed: For an employee moving from the warehouse to the welding line, a certificate appropriate to the new job is required again.

How are the 40-hour modules selected?

Modules are not offered as a one-size-fits-all package. Our specialists first identify the hazardous and very hazardous work in your business and which employee needs to attend which vocational training programme; the 40-hour modules are then selected together with your managers to suit your line of production. The aim is for each employee’s certificate to match the work they actually do. If certificate and job do not match, problems will arise during inspection even if training has been received.

In planning, we take care not to withdraw participants from the same department at the same time, and to take shifts and order peaks into account, so that production is not disrupted.

Link with other OHS obligations

Vocational training alone is not enough. For the same employee, basic OHS training, periodic inspection of the equipment they use, and coverage of the position in the risk assessment are all required together. Keeping the certificate status list in the same file as these records lets you present a complete picture for each employee during inspections.