6. Theoretical Background of Occupational Standards, Basic Concepts and Related Institutions

It is an important necessity to plan and evaluate the workforce, which is a driving force in the country's economy, in terms of quality and quantity, and to generate solutions oriented toward change and development. The efficiency and productivity of the labor market depend on scientific analysis of working conditions, making legislative regulations and executively applying these regulations. Occupational standards are also an important tool in this respect. Occupational standard is defined as the minimal norm indicating the required knowledge, skills, attitude and manner to successfully profess an occupation. In our today’s world what we call informatics society; the countries restructure education and employment systems due to the positive correlation between education and development. Within this restructuring, particularly giving emphasize to occupational standards, occupational training standards, examination and certification systems, which will provide the coordination between education and employment, they endeavor to ensure the institutionalization also by implementing the active participation of government, labor and employers’ organizations and non-governmental organizations. In this system, important concepts and institutions become prominent and need to be clarified. In this study, these prominent concepts are discussed and tried to be defined, and the functions of institutions that are established for occupational standards have been tried to be introduced.