A Consortium of Workers, Employers and Professional Consultancy Institution Will Coordinate the Preparation of the Strategic Documents and Meetings On Training and Labour Market, Which Will Shape the Country Policies of the European Union.

The training and labour force market related activities of the EU are coordinated by the European Training Foundation (ETF), a sub institution of EU. ETF, within this framework, has been conducting its works related with the Mediterranean countries through its National Observatory Network.

The National Observatory for Turkey has been founded in 2001 within the structure of Turkish Employment Agency. The objective of the National Observatory is to ensure continuous and reliable data collection on labour market and vocational education. The information and data compiled this way are used to tailor the EU policies and programs in related areas.

The European Training Foundation has decided to outsource the coordination of the activities that have so far been conducted within the National Observatory. The bidding, which was open for all private and public institutions displaying domestic and international level activities, has been organized in two parts.
The purpose is to:
• Prepare the strategic reports on identified topics in the First Lot, and
• In the Second Lot; bring together relevant parties on certain topics for exchange of views, and organize conferences, seminars and working meetings in order to assist in sharing of information

TİSK, TÜRK-İŞ (www.turkis.org.tr) and EDUSER Consultancy (www.eduser.com.tr ) have entered the bidding together as a consortium, and both lots have been awarded to this consortium. The first lot of the contract shall be by the leadership of TİSK and the second by the leadership of TÜRK-İŞ. EDUSER Consultancy shall provide technical assistance for both lots.

The contract that sets the details for the works has been signed on December 9th, 2005 by the authorities of ETF (www.etf.eu.int ), TİSK and TÜRK-İŞ at TİSK Headquarters. The project duration is 4 years.