There is a significant gap between the employers and the newly trained specialists finishing their University studying. There was a publication by the leading HR companies like Manpower and Jobtiger, where was stated the problem of not finding skilled professionals in some fields. Surely, there are a lot of reasons for that, but one of them is the lack of clear career paths in Bulgaria. Most of young people in schools and universities are struggling to decide what to do with their lives because of the lack of information and also, are struggling to find job in their professional field simply because the employers are looking for different skills.
This is another topic, which concerns the educational process in Bulgaria. Many of the young students share the opinion that there is need of a national career path centre, where you can find information about the professional high-schools and universities and what they offer and also get information what skills are employers looking for right now (and what are the trends for the upcoming 5-10 years). Such information is hard to find and very often youngsters are not aware of the sources. What is worse – most of their decisions are being made based on assumptions and gossip.
Salaries are an important factor for the decision-making process. Some very important fields are really low-paid and the young people who want to develop those skills are getting fewer (like teachers, doctors etc.). If there are good professionals, they often decide to work abroad and leave the country for good.
The needed functionality of a good career path centre is pretty clear:
+ Starting with your high-school development, if the kid is skillful and loves a certain field even on 13-15, you can send him/her to a professional high-school;
+ If yet not clear about the future development (which is normal), just providing more info about the professions and the skills needed to develop;
+ Give info about good matches between schools and universities;
+ Give info about the skills needed and where is best to develop them;
+ Give info about the potential employers and fields of work, locations etc.;
+ Have a good internship programs info and provide to students in high-school and university.
Startup e-Bulgaria 