Within the Employment and Skills Development Project’s Component I, implemented by the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and financed by German Government through KFW German Development Bank, an introductory workshop was organized in Ankara on 25 October. The Project is aimed to improve the institutional capacity of İŞKUR as well as its access for Syrians under temporary protection and locals in the provinces with the most pressing needs.

The objective of the project is to support Syrians under temporary protection and host community members to enter the local labour market and is piloted in five provinces (İstanbul, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Hatay and Kilis) with highest number of Syrians. Claudio Tomasi, UNDP Country Director; Cafer Uzunkaya, İŞKUR General Manager, Horst Zapf, KfW  Senior Project Manager; Burçe Dündar, UNDP Syria Crisis Response and Resilience Portfolio Manager as well as pilot provinces’ directors and other representatives from UNDP and KFW participated in the introductory workshop.

Employment opportunities are to be increased through improving institutional capacities

UNDP Country Director Claudio Tomasi said “As UNDP, we are committed to respond to the changing landscape of sustainable development. Resilience is to resist to the challenges and beyond: to come back stronger. We support skilled labour with the vocational trainings and strengthen institutional capacities to facilitate their access to the labour market in the aftermath”.

İŞKUR General Manager Cafer Uzunkaya, said that Turkey hosts over 3,5 million Syrians and this means an additional and active 2 million people and added: “With these projects, we facilitate the screening and classification of the new labour force, access to livelihoods and increase in decent work opportunities”.

KfW Senior Project Manager Horst Zapf gave detailed briefings on their collaboration with the national and local partners to respond to the dynamic development challenges.

Thousands of Syrians and locals will be registered, screed and get counselling services

The project is part of the larger UNDP Syria Crisis Response and Resilience Programme and aims to strengthen the resilience relevant national and local institutions, İŞKUR in particular, to be better able to cope with and respond to the impact of the Syria crisis. Through the digitalized services of İŞKUR, 3,500 Syrians and 3,500 impacted locals will benefit from the counselling services of İŞKUR and 4,500 Syrians and 4,500 impacted locals will be registered and screened through these improved services at the end of the project period, until June 2020.