Institutional Set-up and Overall Project Organisation

The Project activities are organized at three levels: central, regional, and local levels.

The central management office is located within the Projects Coordination Unit of the Ministry of National Education in Ankara . The central project team includes a total of 20 staff (5 key experts, 5 counterparts, 5 assistants, 5 support personnel). In addition to this permanent staff, representatives from the related units of the MoNE and social partners also contribute to the Project activities as needed.

Regional activities will be carried out by regional offices that will be established in Istanbul , Ankara , Izmir , Antalya , Gaziantep , and Trabzon . In each region, three staff members will be acting as a regional technical assistance team; a regional manager, a policy adviser, and a management assistant. To select members of the regional teams, an advertisement was run in a national newspaper, and social partners were contacted to recruit qualified candidates. The regional technical assistance teams will be supported by two staff members appointed by the Ministry. The locations and premises for offices have already been suggested by provincial directorates of education. Upon selection of the staff members, the regional offices will be established and made operational in the field.

After the identification of six regions, thirty pilot provinces were identified based on their geographical location, demographic variables, socio-economic indicators and educational statistics. These provinces are distributed as 4 from Marmara, 4 from Agean, 4 from Mediterranean, 4 from Central Anatolia, 4 from Black Sea, 4 from South-eastern Anatolia, and 6 from Eastern Anatolia . Regional distribution and rules used in selecting these provinces were approved by the National Coordination Committee and actual identification was endorsed by the Management Committee.

A minimum of 75 pilot institutions will be selected for local project activities. These institutions will be selected based on their micro project proposals. In other words, first micro project proposals will be selected and then participating institutions will be identified as pilot institutions. The selection criteria for pilot institutions were endorsed both by the National Coordination Committee and the Management Committee. Evaluation criteria for micro projects will be the same as those that are employed by the European Union for similar projects or grant applications. The Technical Assistance Team, along with the Ministry of National Education, will evaluate micro project proposals and make recommendations to the Representation of the European Commission, which is the final authority to decide which projects to support.

Monitoring and Coordination Arrangements

An important body at the central level is the National Coordination Committee, which is responsible for discussing general policies and guiding principles. This committee was established in December 2002 and held its first meeting in January 2003. Consistent with the Terms of Reference, the membership of the Committee includes 8 members from public institutions, 8 members from employers and employees, 2 members from non-governmental organisations, and 6 members from the regions. The representatives of the European Commission in Ankara and the Turkish Department of Treasury participate in the Committee as observers. The Committee meets twice a year and is chaired by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of National Education.

In addition to the National Coordination Committee, there is also a Management Committee, which includes two representatives from the Ministry of National Education, two representatives from social partners, and the team leader of the SVET Project. The Committee meets once a month under the chairmanship of the Deputy Undersecretary for Projects at the Ministry of National Education and discusses strategic matters and practical approaches reflecting their institutional sensitivities.

There will be six Regional Advisory Boards at the regional level for monitoring and coordination. They will guide regional policies and practices and their responsibility will be consultative in nature. All the stakeholders will be represented on these boards. In order to provide coordination among the six regions, meetings will be held on a quarterly basis. Representatives of technical assistance teams, regional advisory councils, the Ministry of National Education, and social partners will attend the Central Coordination Meeting (COMET). The Representation of the European Commission will also be invited to the monitoring and coordination meetings.

Programme Organisations