“Bulgaria takes a leading position in resources invested by the business in personnel training. We have shown that we can manage the situation without government intervention when needed” said Mr. Bojidar Danev, Executive President of the BIA, who was a guest in Bloomberg TV Bulgaria’s “Business start” together with former minister of education, Prof. Nikolai Denkov.
“The shortage of skilled personnel is a global problem. The only appropriate approach is finding the direct link between business and higher education – business representatives as a part of the teaching staff, equipping study halls and conducting business driven research, which involves students and doctoral candidates”, said Prof. Denkov. There aren’t any obstacles in the current legislation, but there is a lack of mutual acknowledged interest, which is somewhat governmental fault, because universities are being subsidised according to the number of students and don’t look for quality.
According to Mr. Danev, first of all the connection between vocational and educational standards has to be taken into account. The second delicate point is that the current legislation gives full independence to a lot of educational institutions. “People oppose of change to keep their jobs”.
Mr. Danev also said that “when we are talking about IT technology, we don’t talk about it as a university program, we think that there must not be a program, which doesn’t include IT training.” If that doesn’t happen “students will fly out of the market”: “There isn’t a program, which could not be digital”.
“The appropriate legislation exists. The government doesn’t use the opportunity to trigger these mechanisms in the right direction”, said Prof. Denkov.
“The government is afraid to take decisive action. Fear has petrified it”, Danev said.
