Turkish barbers, chefs and trades: vocational evidence for UK employers

Who this guide is for

You cut hair in Kayseri for twelve years, ran a kebab kitchen in İzmir, or hold an ustalık belgesi as an electrician, and you are now looking for work in the UK or already have an offer. Trades of this kind are rarely licensed in the UK: nobody at a council checks a barber’s certificate, and a restaurant can hire a cook on the strength of a trial shift. What changes the picture is the employer’s own caution, an agency’s vetting, a landlord letting a salon unit, an insurer, or, where the job supports a visa, the Home Office. In each of those cases somebody wants to see, in English, what you did and for how long. This guide is about turning Turkish trade paperwork into that evidence. If your route to the UK is a Skilled Worker visa, read the Skilled Worker page alongside this one.

The sequence in brief

Gather the certificates and the work history from e-Devlet and your former employers; decide which of them a UK reader will care about; have those translated and certified; build a UK-style CV that uses the translated titles; and, only if a visa is involved, hand the same set to your sponsor or adviser. Translation comes in the middle, not at the start, because a third of what people send us turns out not to be needed.

Turkish documents that carry weight

• Ustalık belgesi (mastery certificate) and kalfalık belgesi (journeyman certificate), issued under the apprenticeship system through the Ministry of National Education. The ustalık belgesi is the document that allowed you to open a shop in Türkiye and is the closest thing to a trade licence. Details on the vocational certificates page.
• MYK Mesleki Yeterlilik Belgesi, the national vocational qualification certificate from the Mesleki Yeterlilik Kurumu, with its level (for example Level 3 or 4) and the occupation code. Since it maps to a numbered level, it is the easiest for a UK employer to place.
• Kurs bitirme belgesi from an approved course: hygiene training (hijyen eğitimi belgesi), a barbering or cookery course, a welding or electrical course.
• Meslek lisesi diploması or a two-year vocational school diploma (ön lisans) in cookery, hairdressing or a trade, with the transcript if a college in the UK is involved.
• SGK hizmet dökümü, the social-security service record, which lists each employer, the dates and the job code. For a UK reader this is the single most persuasive document because it is generated by the state rather than written by a friend. See the SGK service record page.
• Çalışma belgesi or a reference letter on the employer’s headed paper, stamped and signed, giving your role and dates; see employment letters and references.
• For shop owners, the vergi levhası and the esnaf sicil or chamber registration, which show that you ran the business.

What the UK side actually requires

There is no statute telling a UK employer how a foreign certificate must be translated. Where a formal standard is applied, it is the one the Home Office uses for visa evidence and that GOV.UK describes for certifying a translation: the translator confirms in writing that the translation is a true and accurate translation of the original document, dates it, and gives their full name and contact details. Employers, agencies and HR teams have accepted our translations to date on that basis, and a translation done that way can be reused for a visa later without being redone. UK ENIC can issue a statement comparing a Turkish vocational qualification to a UK level if an employer or college insists on one; for trades this is unusual, and Turkish is not among the languages ENIC will assess without a translation, so the certified translation is needed either way.

The visa question, briefly

Since 22 July 2025 the Skilled Worker route has generally required a job at RQF level 6 unless the occupation is on a temporary shortage list, and salary thresholds rose at the same time. Whether a particular chef, baker or barber post can be sponsored is an immigration question that changes with the lists; ask the employer’s adviser rather than assuming. Where sponsorship does go ahead, the documents above become part of the application, and a criminal record certificate is added for some occupations.

Timing and cost

e-Devlet produces the SGK record and the MYK certificate check within minutes; an employer reference from a business that closed years ago can take weeks, so start there. An ustalık or MYK certificate is one page and £10 to translate; an SGK hizmet dökümü runs to two to five pages, £20–50; a reference letter £10. Delivery is one to two working days as a certified PDF, with a printed set by courier for £30 if an employer wants paper. No UK VAT is charged.

Mistakes we see

• Translating a stack of course certificates but not the SGK record, which is the one thing that proves the years.
• A CV that says “chef” while the ustalık belgesi says “aşçı yardımcısı”; keep the titles consistent with the translated documents.
• References written in the first person by the applicant and merely stamped by the old employer.
• Asking us to inflate a job title. We translate what the document says and add a translator’s note where a Turkish term has no exact UK equivalent.

What we do

We translate the certificates and records in full, render seals and QR verification notes, and where a Turkish occupational title or level has no direct counterpart we add a short, neutral note (for example that an ustalık belgesi is issued after a kalfalık period and an examination). You receive one certified PDF per document. We do not advise on immigration eligibility; for that, speak to a solicitor or an OISC-registered adviser.