• Board members from the Council of Women in Business in Bulgaria said that companies are faced with a serious shortage of trained staff

• The state can help with staff training according to the needs of business in the country

Businesses in many sectors and regions face serious difficulties in finding appropriate staff and the state can help solve this problem. The members of the Council of Business Women in Bulgaria shared these views during a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ivaylo Kalfin.

a wide range of issues were discussed during the meeting including the promotion of youth employment, the relationship between business and education, the social policies of the state, and ways to retain qualified staff to work in Bulgaria.

The Chairpersion of the Council Dr.-Eng. Boryana Manolova explained what projects are the priority of the organization. She focused her attention to the Leadership Academy, which is organized for the second consecutive year under the patronage of Mrs. Yordanka Fandakova, Mayor of Sofia. “This is the first project that we were able to realize and which gave us the courage to continue with other initiatives,” said board member Tsvetanka Mincheva.

Eng. Vanya Kaneva-Minkova shared details about the Internship Initiative of the Council, which was launched in this year. Explained that the competition “Internship – the first step in my career” ended and announced the new projects of the initiative aimed to encourage young people to start a career in Bulgaria.

Minister Kalfin paid special attention to the programs of the Ministry to promote youth employment. He assessed them as successful new practices to introduce youth mediators to the Employment Agency, whose aim is to encourage young unemployed people to enroll in job centers and thus benefit from the opportunities that they provide – work placements and vocational training.

Many representatives of the Council said that their companies face serious difficulties to find qualified staff, especially in smaller cities. The possibility of starting a joint initiative between the Council and the Ministry of Labour was discussed. A series of meetings between Council members and young people from the labor offices across the country could be organized within this initiative.

“I would support all forms of cooperation between public institutions and businesses aimed at finding jobs for young people. The aim is that every young person in Bulgaria to be able to develop,” Kalfin said.

The Ministry of Labour, the budgetary programs, and the capabilities of the Operational Programme “Development of Human Resources”, suggest measures such as programs for professional training and retraining in various key competences and languages ​​financing transport to work in remote areas, subsidies internship programs.

Minister Kalfin and members of the Council agreed to continue their talks. The Minister once again confirmed his readiness to meet with the finalists in the essay contest of the internship initiative of the Council.