Businesses to enter actively in Bulgarian professional high schools where to seek staff to prepare, provides a draft amendment to the Law on Vocational Education and Training. The concept and the new governance model of vocational education have been prepared jointly by the Ministry of Education and the British Council. The training will be mostly practical and therefore much more expensive. Money to finance the project is mainly waiting to come from the Human Resources Development Operational Programme. The idea is that employers play a leading rather than supporting role in vocational training. Young people who left school after the first high school degree, will thus be able to acquire a profession at a real workplace. Theoretical training will be provided by vocational schools. Another new element is the introduction of a modular organization of theoretical and practical training. Priority will be placed on academic and practical programmes. Each school will choose how to organize the training of their students.
A list of protected occupations will be created, which will encompass the unattractive for young people crafts with social and economic impact and importance. Training in protected fields will be separated into smaller classes. It is planned in the future the new professionals to hold exams for qualification, which will be in fact the mandatory second final exam of their A levels and will combine theory and practice.
In turn, vocational education and training institutions will be categorized under a special system of external evaluation, and will also have their own systems for self-evaluation. The evidence of formal qualifications will be recognized on the European labour market. The bill provides for the decentralization of the enrollment plan adopted by the schools after seventh grade, and additional enrollment possibilities after X class. They will be linked to regional labour market needs. In general vocational training in high schools will be financed from the state budget and European programmes. Courses in a real work environment will be provided by businesses that will pay salaries to the students.
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