Today, Burgas is the second stop of the national roadshow “The Road to Your Success” of the Association for Innovations, Business Services and Technologies. During the event, representatives of educational institutions meet with managers in the field of outsourcing and the technology industry. The initiative is being held for the third time.
The event began with a round table with representatives of the municipality, where the business environment in the city, its development and opportunities for cooperation were discussed and continued with a meeting of AIBEST and representatives of educational institutions, where initiatives for education and joint work with the Ministry of Education and Culture were discussed.
“Despite the momentary collapse and cooling of the technology market, I am convinced that very soon competent and qualified young people will be in demand again. That’s why the Municipality of Burgas puts a lot of effort into creating a good material base, conditions and competitiveness among young people so that they can develop. Before this meeting, we determined the deadlines for the construction of a new educational building for our digital high school. It will be hybrid with accommodation because there are many students from other places in the country studying with us. There will also be new laboratories that will assist in their better training. Our wish is that from next year there will be classes entirely in English, which will attract foreign students to Burgas,” said Mayor Dimitar Nikolov.
He shared that he relies on AIBEST for this, who are also part of the leadership of the computer high school, because this is for the benefit of young people, who will find a reason to stay in Bulgaria, and others to return.
The association unites businesses and companies that operate in the field of high technologies, outsourced business services and development activities. Nataliya Georgieva, executive director of the organizing association announced
“We unite some of the largest employers in the sphere of the Bulgarian market. The goal is to meet the business with the local administration educational structures, respectively students and pupils and to tell them about the opportunities for professional realization that the industry offers. I have received feedback from the companies that were here last year as part of the road show that they met very interesting personnel and the biggest plus is that they start working in companies that have an office in Burgas or offer them telecommuting, so these kids stay here.”
AIBEST also organizes a technical academy for pupils and students with an IT focus.
Personnel is the biggest problem, pointed out the deputy mayor for budget and finance, Stanimir Apostolov:
This is currently the biggest deficit of the business. The business has no deficits in terms of financing and development. That is why we develop such specialties in schools, so that we can respond to business. We held a meeting with all the directors, the branch organizations – Burgas Municipality acted as a mediator, to see what their needs are. I know new majors will be revealed after this meeting as well. All kinds of personnel are wanted – from the IT sector, engineering, there is a demand for middle specialists in the industry. The deficit in the tourism industry is huge.”
The director of the Vocational High School for Computer Programming and Innovation Dimitrina Todorova pointed out:
“The school is very young, but we have a first graduating class. More than 50% of the children chose to study software sciences and started working in this industry, which makes us very happy because we are created in this collaborative mode between the municipality and the IT business. We would like to fulfill the task that they have given us – to prepare enough children to be able to start work quickly, immediately after completing their secondary education. We manage to bring the learning process closer to the real needs of specific jobs.”
Students who took part in the Road to Your Success National Roadshow shared:
“We are students of the German Language High School and we are here to get a little more information on the subject. This is the main motivation of all of us here. As young people, it’s good to be informed, so events like this have great value and importance.”
“There is an interest in working online with the development of the Internet and artificial intelligence. It’s becoming more and more popular for those of us who grew up with computers and the internet to do this and I think it’s a good prospect for all young people to be involved in this field from an early age.”
The forum continues until the end of the day at the Congress Center.
Hear more in the sound file.
