Projects

In the period June 26-28, 2023, a kick-off meeting was held under project No. 101104419 "Academy for Transitional Skills in the Build Environment" (BuildSkills Academy), financed under the Erasmus+ Programme, co-financed by the European Union. The project started on June 1, 2023 with a total budget of 3,938,490 euros.

The meeting was hosted by Cleantech Bulgaria - Coordinator of the project, uniting 17 partners from 10 European countries, who will work together until May 31, 2027 to achieve its main goal - modernizing and adapting the ecosystems providing professional training and knowledge to the construction industry, to emerging new needs in the field of green and digital skills. The project will develop a BuildEnrichedSkills methodology and procedure to support vocational training and education centers to assist them in the rapid adaptation of the workforce to the twin ecological and digital transition. The focus is on occupations in the construction sector. Another main objective is the creation of a certification framework for the recognition of skills and competences corresponding to the needs of the twin transition, which will serve as a reference worldwide for the improvement and certification of VET’s services.

The Confederation of the Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria (KRIB) as a project partner will coordinate the process of validating the BuildEnrichedSkills methodology with diverse stakeholders from education, industry and innovation engaged in 5 thematic groups on Environment, Health and Safety; Energy Efficiency; Circular Waste Management; Design and Engineering; New building systems and materials. The summarized findings of the consultations will be structured in a Validation report outlining the ways in which the learning provision can be timely adapted to the constantly changing market needs, as well as the ways to create new knowledge in partnership with other stakeholders.

The results achieved by the project will be transferable to 12 pilot projects in 6 countries, involving 300 trainees and reaching 100 vocational training providers, 1 000 companies and 20 high-level organizations in the field of construction skills and competences thus achieving at least 100 collaborations between VET and industry.

Building an innovative training model and path through determining the level and assessment of digital and green skills of teachers in the field of vocational education and training (VET), as well as development of innovative VOOC platform with integrated courses and learning content.

Project number: 2020-1-EL01-KA226-VET-094871
Duration: 01.03.2021 – 28.02.2023
Budget: 256 206, 00€

The project aims to:

Assess the current state in the green economy sector, along with digital and green skills used by VET teachers. Based on the results obtained to create a curriculum and content with modules related to building green and digital skills

Improve and upskill the knowledge of (VET) teachers on digital and green skills.

Ensure continuity in the VET system, in the context of occurring changes in the learning environment, by implementing methodologies based on Digital Online Learning.

Develop and launch an innovative VOOC platform with integrated courses and learning content aiming to develop digital and green skills.

Improve readiness and opportunities of VET teachers for adaptation of the curriculum thus enhancing their capacity to apply an international mindset for education.

Expected results:

• Support VET teachers to acquire appropriate practical knowledge and access to information in the field of digital and green skills
• The project will provide support in the integration of green topics and courses in vocational training
• Encouraging the adaptation of VET teachers in response to the requirements, trends  and changes in the labor market, addressing the context of growing numbers of online trainings.
• Through projects results, teachers will have the opportunity to build digital and green skills on their own. With their help, the learning content will be presented and improved by inclusion of digital models, engaging and interacting with learners in an online environment and including green topics.

Original document

The Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria - KRIB successfully completed the project "Developing new models for digital skills in response to the challenges of the future labor market". Its main objective was aimed at overcoming imbalances in the field of digital skills of employees, thus companies will have a better opportunity to successfully go through the digital transition. This was announced by project coordinator Galya Petrova at a closing press conference held on 30 June 2023 at the KRIB headquarters in Sofia.

According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, only 1/3 of the working age population in Bulgaria has basic digital skills. Statistics for companies show that every fourth small and medium-sized enterprise has implemented and uses new technologies, while in the EU this percentage is over 55%.

Against this background, the results achieved by the project can be extremely useful in developing comprehensive policies for the development of human resources in the new digital reality. KRIB has successfully developed and tested 75 unified digital skills profiles, one for each key occupation/position from 17 economic activities, on which the employers' organisation carried out an extensive analysis.

For each of the sectors, KRIB developed sector-specific digital skills qualification frameworks and curricula and content. More than 700 persons have been trained under the project.

"As the largest employers' organisation, it is extremely important for us to encourage and support real businesses to be successful in overcoming various employment, modern labour market and digitalisation challenges. I believe that all the tools and training programmes we have been able to develop will help Bulgarian companies to improve the skills of their employees and, consequently, increase the efficiency of production and create new business opportunities," Galya Petrova further said.

The project, which started on 1 September 2021, is funded by the Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2014-2020, under the procedure "Development of Digital Skills" Component 2, BFP contract No BG05M9OP001-1.128-0003-C01. KRIB's partners in this project are the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.