The problem is about the system. Engineers in Turkey do not practice engineering because of deindustrialization.

I grew up watching the Star Trek series. The USS Enterprise was full of engineers. They rushed into the engine room as Klingon attacks deactivated power plants one after another. They stepped up if communication failed. They were at the center of the story. Engineering was a prestigious profession in the 1960s. It is not so in today’s Turkey, however.

TV series always give a message. Considering those in Turkey, there is no reason to become an engineer. Even characters who studied engineering are not employed as engineers in Turkish TV series. We have sultans, contractors, and public employees. Public prosecutors, judges, and police officers are quite popular, but engineers or industrialists are missing. The only industrialist figure in a current TV series in Turkey is in Öyle Bir Geçer Zaman Ki (Time Goes By), which is set in the 1970s. Industrialists have been absent on the TV screen since then.

Engineering is not a popular profession in Turkey these days. But Turkey is in need of more engineers. Do you know the density of engineers in Turkey? Let me tell you.

Engineer density is the number of employed engineers as a share of the total labor force and is used as an indicator of the importance of industry for a given country. The higher the engineer density, the more widespread the R&D activities in that country. Engineer density is thus one of the indictors to take into account for an advanced industry. In European Union (EU) countries, around 2 percent of the employed population are engineers.

The engineer density for EU countries as of 2007 was 2.14 percent, with 3 percent in Germany and Finland, and 1.5 percent in Poland and Spain, to give a few examples. In Turkey, however, the engineer density is 0.94 percent, the same as that of the Republic of Slovakia. Here we have another indicator to work on so as to reach the 2023 targets: Turkey has to increase the engineer density in the total employed population. For instance, the Council for Industry and Higher Education of the UK, founded under public-private partnership, works to promote the study of engineering. They run campaigns to attract the brightest students to engineering studies.

Does Turkey not have enough engineers? According to the Prime Ministry Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Turkey, 75,000 engineers graduated from Turkish universities in 2010. This is quite something. It is close to the figures of Germany or Korea. Nevertheless, engineering graduates in Turkey do not work as engineers. They prefer working at a bank or some other place. Just take a look around. Engineers prefer other jobs that pay more. They earn more if they switch to the construction businesses, for instance. What is more, they earn more respect. Engineering graduates in Turkey do not practice engineering. Well-educated young people in Turkey are well aware that they can earn more in other career options. They open a pastry shop, for instance. Here, I believe is a more fundamental problem. It relates not to the Turkish youth, but the system.

Engineers in Turkey do not practice engineering because of deindustrialization.

TV series prove the deindustrialization in Turkey. Society becomes what it watches.

This commentary was published in Radikal daily on 15.01.2013