Training on the Job in Istanbul: A Study of Skills Acquisition in Carpentry and Car-Repair Workshops

摘要

This article describes a study of income generation and vocational skill acquisition in small workshops in Istanbul, Turkey. Car-repair and carpentry workshops were chosen as the focal point of the study, which involved collecting data on 88 master craftsmen, 55 journeymen and 38 apprentices. In addition in-depth interviews were conducted with the carpentry and car-repair artisans. The descriptive data from the survey study show that the artisans in Istanbul are in general migrants and primary school graduates, who usually acquire their vocational skills on-the-job. The analysis of the interviews suggests that the apprentices, journeymen, and masters in the car-repair and carpentry trades are content with their vocational skills acquired on-the-job.