OTS Secretary General Ambassador Kubanychbek Omuraliev participated in the OECD Skills Summit 2026, held in Istanbul on 27–28 April 2026 under the theme “Unlocking Talent Across Generations.”

The summit's opening was addressed by President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Labour and Social Security of Türkiye Prof. Dr. Vedat Işıkhan and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. Discussions ranged across skills development, human capital enhancement, inclusive labour markets, lifelong learning, vocational training and innovation-driven growth. The OTS Secretary General attended the official opening ceremony, took part in the tour-de-table session on skills policy development, exchanged views with the OECD Secretary-General, and presented the OTS's institutional framework in the fields of labour, employment and social protection.

The Organization's presence at a flagship OECD event reflects the growing international engagement of the Turkic cooperation framework on education-adjacent policy. Skills and human capital sit immediately downstream of higher education: the questions debated in Istanbul – how societies develop talent, retrain workforces and sustain lifelong learning – are questions in which universities are principal actors.

For TURKUNIB member universities, the OTS's engagement with the OECD skills agenda signals opportunities to align regional academic cooperation with international best practice in skills and employability – dimensions increasingly important to graduates navigating the labour markets of the Turkic states and beyond.

Photo: Organization of Turkic States (turkicstates.org)

Photo: Organization of Turkic States (turkicstates.org)

Based on official OTS reporting: Secretary General of the Organization of Turkic States participated in the OECD Skills Summit 2026