Experts appealed for greater parental support in dual education

Photo: Press Center_St. Zagora Municipality

Vocational education in Bulgaria should become a dual form of education – experts and representatives of municipalities from the Stara Zagora region, vocational high schools, the Regional Inspectorate of Education and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry united around this statement.

The aim is high school students to work in the field in order to leave school ready for their lives, commented the participants in the Regional information meeting-consultation for the preparation of the DOMINO 2 program for dual training under the Swiss-Bulgarian cooperation program, which was held in the District Administration – Stara Zagora.

Vanya Tosheva, senior expert in the “Education and Youth Activities” department, introduced the aspects of the DOMINO 2 program, whose implementation period is from 2024 to 2028.

Stara Zagora Region is the first in which dual education practically started, and this happened already in 2015. The total number of participating classes so far is 54, currently there are 35. In the next school year, however, there will be only two classes.

The directors of two of the vocational high schools in Stara Zagora, present at the regional information meeting, admitted that the weak link in the chain are the children and rather their absent parents. The majority of them work abroad, and their high school children are being raised by elderly grandparents.

“Young people have a hard time learning to work, they are stressed by the regime, by the need to prove themselves responsible, to give explanations when they are absent, coming from a liberal environment such as education, pointed out Tanya Radkova, Progress AD.

The company is among the employer partners of the vocational high schools in Stara Zagora, which provide employment opportunities. It is good to strengthen the role of parents, for the entire period during which dual training is conducted at Progress, only two parents have come to see how and under what conditions their children will work, Tanya Radkova pointed out.

Dual education in the 11th and 12th grades will be maintained two and three days a week, as it has been until now, but it is good to think about how employers can be involved in the selection of young people with whom they have to enter into employment contracts, they agreed are the experts. In other European countries, 5-6 high school students are fighting for one place in the company, and this greatly increases their motivation, it became known at the information meeting.

From April 1, 2024, the state fully takes over the social and health insurance of students in dual education in Bulgaria.