Vocational education and training (VET) has been promoted as a key strategy for refugees’ integration into the labour markets of their host societies, with the expectation that it would provide refugees the skills that are necessary to access better employment in their host countries. Nevertheless, evidence from both high-income and middle-income countries (MICs) shows that refugees predominantly work in labour-intensive jobs under precarious conditions, and, VET has not always been an effective instrument to improve refugees’ employment conditions. This article aims to understand the reasons behind this situation. It studies the multiplicity of factors influencing the viability of VET for refugees’ labour market integration, focusing on Syrian refugees in Tarsus, Turkey, a MIC currently hosting the largest number of refugees worldwide. It shows that the top-down, supply focused VET programmes may have limited effectiveness in promoting better employment for refugees if the designers and implementers of these programmes do not fully consider the local context and the refugees’ specific realities. © 2024 The Author(s). Industrial Relations Journal published by Brian Towers (BRITOW) and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

DOI: 10.1111/irj.12442
ISSN: 00198692