As skilled workers are not being trained, blue-collar workers have become valuable in the industry.

With the increase of uninterrupted education to 12 years, following the apprentice shortage, in Aydın as well as across the country, craftsmen began to find jobs with engineer salaries, while engineers were finding jobs with minimum wage. Bilal Türen, a businessman from Aydın, stated that the problem began in the years following the extension of compulsory education to 8 years, saying, “It used to be difficult to find engineers, now it has become difficult to find machine operators, welders, and mold makers. Whatever is scarce and hard to find becomes more valuable. Therefore, blue-collar workers now earn more money than engineers.”

It has been noted that in Aydın, which is making progress as an industrial city alongside being an agricultural and tourism city, it has become harder to find skilled workers than engineers. Bilal Türen emphasized that the biggest problem in the industry is finding skilled craftsmen and intermediate workers, stating, “This problem actually arises from the changes made in the education system without considering the views of the parties involved. We felt the problems brought by the 8-year compulsory education, which started in the 1997-1998 academic year, about 20 years later. Today, serious problems are being experienced. Children who previously had no inclination towards education were directed towards the profession they were interested in after primary school. With the enactment of Law No. 4306 starting from the 1997-1998 academic year, the 5-year primary and 3-year secondary education was combined, leading to a continuous 8-year primary education process, which caused a serious problem in the industry. Then, in the 2012-2013 academic year, compulsory education in Turkey was extended from 8 years to 12 years. The previously applied model of 5+3 (Primary-Secondary) was reorganized into 4+4+4 (4 years of primary, 4 years of secondary, and 4 years of high school). Now everyone has studied and become engineers. However, there are no people left to work. As a result, those who entered apprenticeship during that period and became masters are now earning more money than those who studied and became engineers and have always been sought after workers.”