- 2017Implementation
- 2018Implementation
- 2019Implementation
- 2020Completed
Description
During 2017-19, Cedefop has provided technical advice to Bulgaria to improve its governance of skills anticipation and matching.
The aim was:
- to improve the management and coordination of skills anticipation efforts;
- make existing skills anticipation initiatives more useful for policy;
- better linking skills intelligence to education and training.
The review is part of Cedefop's skills governance project, which aims at strengthening skills anticipation and matching in EU Member States.
At a meeting organised by Cedefop and the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science in Sofia on 3 June 2019, Cedefop presented the main findings of the skills governance review in the country and a draft policy roadmap based on stakeholder consensus about what they see as relevant and feasible in terms of steps and roles during the implementation procedure. In accordance with the principle that countries drive the reviews and own the process, the policy roadmap will be validated by the national steering committee. The finalised roadmap and all other findings will become part of a Cedefop report planned for 2020. The policy roadmap was validated by the National steering committee in the framework of a consultation process coordinated by Cedefop. Further steps will be undertaken by the education and labour ministries for the discussion of implementation approaches in the framework of the new programming period 2020-27.
The report Strengthening skills anticipation and matching in Bulgaria: Bridging education and the world of work through better coordination and skills intelligence, with the proposals for a roadmap for skills anticipation, has been finalised and posted on the Cedefop portal on 3 December 2020. A dialogue is to be launched among the stakeholders and specific measures will be taken to implement the proposals for a roadmap in the context of implementation of the National tripartite agreement between the Government and the social partners in relation to building a system of skills anticipation with an implementation framework until 2022.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Education and Science
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Adult learners
- Low-skilled/qualified persons
Other stakeholders
- Social partners (employer organisations and trade unions)
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.
In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.
High-quality and timely skills intelligence is a powerful policy tool, helping improve economic competitiveness and fostering social progress and equality through the provision of targeted skills training to all citizens (Cedefop, 2020). Skills intelligence is the outcome of an expert-driven process of identifying, analysing, synthesising and presenting quantitative and/or qualitative skills and labour market information. Skills intelligence draws on data from multiple sources, such as graduate tracking systems, skills anticipation mechanisms, including at sectoral and regional levels. Actions related to establishing and developing such systems fall under this thematic sub-category.