Vocational education has gained importance once again by globalization process around the world. In every country and Turkey as well, the fast technological development and increased demands for quality products and services has also increased the expectations on behalf of workforce and enforced well trained labors who can easily adapt themselves to changed working conditions by shouldering responsibilities and working as an effective member of team works.  

Education systems, and Vocational Education and Training (VET)systems in particular, are often in the centre of policy debates at times of economic crises and rising unemployment, as it is a widely held assumption that a well-functioning training system can protect against unemployment, especially among the young (Imhe 2009, 2).

There are three main reasons in Turkey and OECD countries that makes the vocational education and teaching (VET) important. First, VET has important economic functions by providing trade, technical and professional skills for the workforce. Second, there are signs of emerging strains in VET systems, because of insufficient conditions and inadequate vocational trainers and teachers for training the workforce. Third, VET has been neglected in the past by politicians, industrial institutions and parents as well (OECD, 2009).

                The last development plan in Turkey which gave priority to industrialization, to train necessary workforce for industry through VET was accepted as an objective.  In order to reduce the massive number of students waiting for university entrance and balance the education-workforce-employment system are always emphasized by the development plans, too. Although there are several difficulties for acquiring sufficient employees needed by industry and economic system, the unemployment rate of VET graduates have been increasing and the demand for the vocational high schools cannot be realized at desired rate.  (9^th Developmental Plan, 231)

                As discussed above, technical and vocational schools can be considered as indispensable agents for training quality and skilled workforce for every industrial system.  But it is necessary to analyze the problems experienced in these schools scientifically and systematically. This research intends to determine the physical and learning environment of technical and vocational schools and to propose rational solutions to these problems. For this reason the following research problems were developed: (1) What are the physical and learning environment problems in technical and vocational schools in Turkey according to the perceptions of teachers and managers?, (2) Is there any significant difference between the perceptions of managers and teachers towards the physical and learning environment in Technical-Vocational schools?, and, (3) Do these perceptions differ in terms of selected demographic and professional variables including gender, seniority, branch, in-service training etc.?         

Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE), July 2009. 5th Development Plan 6th Development Plan 7th Development Plan 8th Development Plan 9th Development Plan Tatlıdil E., Xanthacou Y. (2002) "Türk İşgücünün Yapısı Ve Avrupa Birliği İstihdam Politikaları" Ege Akademik Bakış Dergisi, V. 2, Number 2. Learning For jobs: OECD Policy Review of Vocational Education and Training, Initial Report, OECD 2009.