BIBB supports Bulgarian cooperation partner
Dr. Hannelore Kress
The DIDACTA Association of the German Education Industry invited a BIBB staff member to its annual conference in Sofia/Bulgaria in October. Dr. Hannelore Kress gave a lecture on the "Dual System - Challenges and Limitations". The conference was also an opportunity to meet one of BIBB's long-standing cooperation partners, Bulgaria's National Agency for Vocational Education and Training (NAVET). A cooperation agreement with BIBB has been in place since 2007 and experts from Bulgaria have visited BIBB. President Dr. Deyan Pushkarov said he was pleased with the active cooperation: Bulgaria was achieving satisfactory development aligned with such instruments as qualifications frameworks and EQAVET. NAVET's main tasks consist of certifying vocational schools and vocational training establishments, developing occupational profiles, occupational standards and relevant quality assurance, vocational orientation, and dissemination of information on the theme of "vocational education and training". Mr. Pushkarov emphasised that special importance had lately been attached to the theme of "transition systems for young people from school into initial vocational training". In Bulgaria as elsewhere, increasing numbers of young people with academic degrees were facing the prospect of unemployment; moreover, rising numbers of young people were dropping out of school or not yet ready for initial vocational training. Appropriate answers were now being sought, declared Mr. Pushkarov, and his institution hoped to obtain information and advice from BIBB.
In spring 2013, the agency in conjunction with other ministerial structures is planning a workshop on "Forms of transition assistance and their mechanisms" with specialist support from BIBB experts.
