The NGO Sector Was Represented in the Third Day of Career Bourses in the Frameworks of the Project Economic Education in Bulgaria 2030

The third day of the career bourses which are held in the frameworks of the project BG05M2OP001-2.016-0004-CO1 - Economic Education in Bulgaria 2030 met students with employers from the NGO sector.

"The idea of the third career bourse in the frameworks of the project Economic Education in Bulgaria 2030 is for young people to learn more about working in the NGO sector and about the opportunities for internships and volunteering in it. They need to know that these organizations are also places where everyone can build a career and a career with a cause, because every NGO is called to help society in some way", emphasized Assoc. Prof. Dr. Rosen Kirilov, Vice Rector for Digitalization and Cybersecurity and Project Coordinator.

"We want to show students that working in NGOs is a job like any other and offers opportunities for realization and development. It is a job with a good purpose for the benefit of all. NGO`s will offer, if not a job right away, at least an internship to young people", said the Director of the Inter-University Center for Career Development /ICCD/ Atanas Dimitrov.

"The Bulgarian Organization for Voluntary Blood Donation /BOVBD/ is the first public benefit association in Bulgaria whose activity is 100% focused on encouraging and promoting the voluntary blood donation. The main objective of the Association is to draw public attention to the problems that arise from the small number of voluntary blood donors and the lack of sufficient quantities of safe blood to meet the health care needs of Bulgaria. We are the founder, owner and administrator of the system Donate Blood - Help or Find Help with the first of its kind for Bulgaria mobile application for mutual assistance", said Stefka Popova-Lazarova, Chairwoman of BOVBD and added: "Our activities are diverse, so we have different positions, there are positions that are entirely online, there is also work related to organizing events, for us will also be useful people who have an interest in digital marketing. We have positions and opportunities for work on administering the Donate Blood system.”

"At the Institute for Market Economics we are looking for specialists with an economic profile who want to deal with analytical work, with the preparation of different types of analyses, people who are interested in what is happening at the moment and can provide this information to those who make important decisions such as managers in high positions, who are part of the administration or are business people, or journalists, or those who are just interested in what happens in Bulgaria when it comes to finance, economy, budget", said Iva Rankovska.

"We also look for someone who is open to work with data. A very large part of our business is dealing with different data. A good candidate has to be keenly interested in what's going on in Bulgaria and around the world because more or less economic processes are tied to political processes. In general, the work at the Institute is quite valuable because very often different institutions consult us about how to implement certain policies and strategies and therefore the work that one does has quite a big impact and application in different areas of socio-economic life", added Theodor Nedev from the Institute of Market Economics.

The project BG05M2OP001-2.016-0004-SO1 - Economic Education in Bulgaria 2030 is funded under the Operational Programme Science and Education for Smart Growth 2014-2020 under the procedure Modernization of Higher Education Institutions. The project is worth BGN 5 million. The UNWE should modify its training, respectively the curricula in Economics and Management, in a way that allows them to be similar to programmes in European universities and applicable in the modern business conditions. The updating and modernization will be done in partnership with other regionally leading universities such as D. А. Tsenov Academy of Economics - Svishtov, Burgas Free University, National Sports Academy and the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria /KRIB/. Through this cooperation up-to-date curricula based on digitalization will be created and put into practice. 9 digital classrooms and 3 digital laboratories which are an indispensable addition to the modern learning process will be operational. It will enable the sharing of resources, including know-how between the partner universities and/or between the students and their university lecturers and mentors to be maximized.

The project relies on the inclusion of a large part of the lecturers involved in its implementation in the programmes for further training and/or short-term specialization in the foreign partners and the share of young scientists should be at least 15 percent. It is planned to implement 15 joint programmes with partner Bulgarian higher education institutions and to introduce 7 new programmes with digital educational content, including distance learning. 2 training programmes in a foreign language will be introduced in cooperation with foreign universities and scientific organizations.

The project will provide support for students to develop entrepreneurial skills and digital creativity. The project will be implemented for 30 months and all of the above will contribute to improve the quality of economics education at the UNWE and in Bulgaria, as well as to improve the quality of research at the UNWE and other partner universities.