LMS in Turkey (Türkiye): a guide for companies and training centers

What do companies and training centers in Türkiye need from an LMS today?

Buyers in Türkiye search for one of three things: a kurumsal LMS for a company academy, an eğitim yönetim sistemi for a training center that runs courses for clients, or an uzaktan eğitim sistemi that teaches online. Underneath, they ask for the same core: courses in Turkish, records that hold up when an inspector or a client asks, and personal data handled under KVKK.

Three things have changed. A new regulation on employees’ occupational health and safety (İSG) training took effect on 2 April 2026, and it spells out what an online training system must record. Article 9 of KVKK, on sending personal data abroad, was rewritten in 2024. And the KVKK Board is busy: in 2025 it received 12,512 complaints and notices and 328 breach notifications, and fined 876 data controllers. An LMS chosen now has to fit all three.

The rules below were checked against official sources on 19 October 2026. They change, so confirm the current text on mevzuat.gov.tr or with the body concerned. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Which training rules apply in Türkiye, and how does an LMS fit them?

İSG training is the legal duty that reaches every employer. Under the regulation published in the Resmî Gazete on 2 April 2026 (No. 33212), every employee gets basic training of at least 8, 12 or 16 lesson hours in less hazardous, hazardous and very hazardous workplaces, repeated at least every three years, two years and one year. A lesson hour is at least 45 minutes of teaching plus a 15-minute break. Job-start training (işe başlama eğitimi), at least two hours, is always practical and face to face.

Online is allowed, within limits. The first three topic headings of Annex 1 may be taught online in any workplace. The fourth, on the risks of the job and the workplace, may be online only in less hazardous workplaces (Article 12). When training is online, the employer records log-ins and log-outs, completion rates and test results, and the system has to prevent fast-forwarding, skipping or closing the window, with short pop-up questions to keep people engaged. The final test is passed at 60 out of 100, with at most two more attempts (Article 16). Certificates go in the employee’s personnel file and may be kept electronically (Articles 17 and 26).

MEB certificates follow MEB’s rules. For courses run by public education centers (halk eğitimi merkezleri), or with them in partnership, the Lifelong Learning Institutions Regulation says certificates are processed in the e-Yaygın system and, as a rule, issued through e-Devlet, and programmes chosen by the ministry may be taught by distance learning under rules it sets (Article 62). Private courses licensed by MEB fall under the private education institutions rules instead. Vocational qualifications are separate: MYK’s FAQ counts 204 occupations where a certificate is compulsory, and a notice of 23 March 2026 adds 40 more, binding 12 months after publication. The certificate comes from theory and practical exams at an MYK-authorised body. An LMS can prepare people for those exams; it cannot issue the certificate.

A platform fits these rules by keeping the evidence, not by holding a licence. Classbase is designed for that: dated progress for each learner, every test attempt with its score against the pass mark, certificates with expiry dates, and an activity log of who changed what. It is not approved by MEB, MYK or the Ministry of Labour, and it does not connect to e-Yaygın or e-Devlet.

KVKK, data protection and hosting

KVKK, the Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 (Resmî Gazete, 7 April 2016), covers learner data: names, IDs, attendance, scores. The company or training center that decides why data is processed is the data controller (veri sorumlusu); the LMS vendor is usually a data processor (veri işleyen), working on the controller’s instructions. The controller informs learners (Article 10), takes technical and administrative security measures and is jointly responsible for them with its processor (Article 12), and registers in VERBİS before processing unless the Board exempts it (Article 16).

If data is obtained unlawfully, the controller tells the person and the Board as soon as possible (Article 12); the Board’s decision 2019/10 reads that as no later than 72 hours for the notice to the Board. Hosting matters because of Article 9, amended by Law No. 7499 of 2 March 2024. Data may leave Türkiye under a Board adequacy decision, or with an appropriate safeguard such as the Board’s standard contract, which must be notified to the Authority within five working days of signing. In 2025, 2,497 standard contracts were submitted. Without either, transfers are allowed only occasionally, in listed cases.

Classbase has not published a hosting region. We confirm where your data would be hosted during the demo, before anything is agreed. Ask us, and any vendor, these questions:

• In which country are data and backups stored?
• Which sub-processors can see learner data, and where are they?
• Which Article 9 route covers any transfer abroad, and who notifies the standard contract?
• How fast will you tell us about a breach, so we can meet the 72 hours?
• Can we export everything, and have it deleted, when the contract ends?

Turkish language and local fit

Classbase’s own screens are in Turkish, English and Arabic today. The admin picks a default learning language and the languages courses are offered in. Courses can be taught in the 40 languages the app lists: the AI translates a course with your glossary, and flags each card whose translation is out of date. The AI tutor and the copilot answer in the language the person writes in, so a learner can ask in Turkish about a course written in English.

Certificates print in one language or two side by side, such as Turkish and English for a multinational team, with a code and QR anyone can check. Single sign-on with OIDC or SAML, plus SCIM 2.0, keeps people and groups in step with a directory such as Microsoft Entra ID or Okta. We don’t claim a ready-made connector to local HR or payroll suites; ask in the demo what fits your setup.

İŞKUR and workforce programmes: running and reporting them

İŞKUR, the Turkish Employment Agency, runs vocational training courses for registered job seekers, delivered through contractors, and on-the-job training programmes (İşbaşı Eğitim Programı) at employers. Its course page sets 5 to 8 hours a day, 30 to 45 hours a week, and no more than 160 actual days in total.

A training center delivering such a course, or an employer hosting trainees, has to show who attended, when and with what result. İŞKUR’s FAQ says attendance is compulsory, leave is capped at one tenth of the programme, and employers send in attendance sheets for on-the-job trainees. İŞKUR sets those terms in its regulation on active labour services, and they change, so check them with your İŞKUR provincial office before you plan a programme.

Classbase is designed to run a programme like this as a cohort: one group with its schedule, live sessions with attendance read from Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet or taken with a check-in code, results and certificates for each trainee, and a report you can download as CSV. It does not file anything with İŞKUR or connect to its systems.

Buying an LMS in Türkiye: teknik şartname, EKAP and a requirements checklist

Public bodies covered by Public Procurement Law No. 4734 buy through tenders (ihale) run on EKAP, the Public Procurement Authority’s electronic platform. Article 12 says a teknik şartname (technical specification) may not name a brand or model, or describe features aimed at one, except with the words “or equivalent” where no standard exists, so write requirements as outcomes. Companies use the same words in a private RFP, with a teklif (offer), a demo and usually a security questionnaire from IT.

A short list of points to put in your teknik şartname or RFP:

How Classbase is designed to help

Classbase is an agent-first LMS and LXP for training centers and corporate academies. Drop in an İSG handbook or a procedure written in Turkish, and the course builder turns it into short modules of interactive cards; you review each module and publish a numbered version. Learners get an AI tutor that answers from the course and gives a hint before the answer. Staff ask the copilot in Turkish who is overdue, and get a chart with a line that says what was counted.

A training center can run each client company as its own organization, so Harbour Logistics never sees Brightline Services’ people. Certificates re-enroll people before they expire, which suits İSG repeat periods, and automations nudge whoever falls behind. For each kind of action, you choose whether the AI does it, asks first or never does it, and every step lands in the activity log.

Classbase is sold by demo, and we won’t claim what we don’t have: no MEB, MYK or İŞKUR approval, no e-Devlet integration and no KVKK certification. Book a demo with one of your own courses, and we’ll show it running in Turkish with your roles and records, and confirm hosting before anything is agreed.