Abstract:

This study aimed to analyze the trainees attending the Public Education Center vocational course programs opened within the context of lifelong learning. The study group of the research is composed of trainees from six vocational course programs offered at the Public Education Center between 2015 and 2019, including 1,172 female trainees and 102 male trainees. The reasons of selecting these six vocational course programs include the trainees who have chosen these vocational course programs each semester, the programs containing active workshop, and, most importantly, instructors who taught these programs having participated as trainees in these programs during this period 2015 - 2019 . Research data were collected through document review and semi-structured interviews conducted with the instructors of six vocational course programs selected for this research. According to the results of the document analysis, it was observed that women were more likely to attend Public Education Center vocational course programs. Both female and male trainees included mostly young adults ages 23 to 44 and secondary school graduates. Three themes were formed according to the result of descriptive analysis, including: “the gains from vocational course programs”, “the meaning of lifelong learning”, and “the suggestions for vocational course programs”. It was observed that interviewees internalized lifelong learning and reflected it completely throughout their lives.

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