"The Challenge- Youth Employment" was the topic of a conference held today in Ruse, in “Dohodno Sdanie”, hall “Europe”. The event was organized by Association "Bulgarian-Romanian Trans-border Mediation Institute" (BRTMI) and Association "Youth Voice"- branch Ruse. The event was attended by more than 70 guests and participants.

 

Official guests of the forum were the Deputy Minister of Ministry of Youth and Sports- Kalin Kamenov, the Deputy Regional Governor- Stanimir Stanchev, the Chairman of the Ruse Municipality Council- Prof. Vasil Penchev, the Deputy Rector of the University of Ruse- Prof. Yuliyana Popova, the Head of the Regional Inspectorate of Education- Dimitar Rainov, the Director of the Ruse Regional Employment Agency- Dragomir Nikolov and others. In the conference took part employees from 12 Employment Offices, young people and NGOs, pupils, students. 

 

Mr. Kamenov and Mr. Stanchev both held welcome speeches in the beginning of the conference. Vanya Kastreva, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Education and Science, congratulated the organizers on the occasion of conducting the event. 

 

During the four panels, the participants were able to discuss various aspects of issues related to youth employment. In the first of them, was presented an UNICEF- Bulgaria study on topic "NEETs- Status and Perspectives". It was presented by the consultant of the international organization, Ms. Natalia Georgieva. According to the nationally represented survey, conducted in the end of 2014 by the Research  agency ESTAT and commissioned by UNICEF, every fifth young person, between 15 to 24 years of age, in Bulgaria is NEET (not in employment, not in education or training).

 

"Do national employment policies respond to the needs and expectations of young people?" was the question which answer the participants sought during the second panel. The event continued with a discussion on topic "Education - a Key to Social and Economic Empowerment of Youth." The last, fourth panel was dedicated to the topic "From Reasons towards Solutions for Sustainable Youth Employment- Work with NEETs". 

 

Youth employment is a topic which is placed with extremely high commitment from all EU countries during the current European Year of Development. Its relevance comes also from the context of the implementation of the Youth Guarantee. The goal which the organizers of the forum set for themselves is to contribute to public awareness of the challenges arising from the large number of young people in Bulgaria who do not work or participate in education or training (NEETs).