7th National conference „Lifelong Learning Days in Bulgaria”
18 - 20 October 2007, Hotel Sheraton, Sofia
The 7th Lifelong Learning Days in Bulgaria 2007 gathered on the 18-20 October 2007 in hotel Sheraton, Sofia 150 participants from the educational sector, ministries, social partners and last but not least the business. The event was opened with welcome speeches of the deputy ministers for education - Ekaterina Vitkova, for employment and social affairs - Dimitar Dimitrov, the deputy director of the national VET agency - Maria Antova, the director of the Bulgarian office of the Institute foe International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association (dvv international) - Maria Todorova, the president of the Federation of Societies for Spread of Knowledge (FSSK) - Christo Christov as well as of the cultural attaché of the German Embassy in Bulgaria Mr. Ferdinand von Weyhe.
The national forum was divided in three parts with specific accents. The first day was dedicated to the topic validation of non-formal and informal learning where some international experts as Patrick Werquin from OECD and Tina Simota from the Accreditation Center of Continuing Vocational Training Greece (EKEPIS) presented their experience and practices in the European/international context. The state of art in Bulgaria was reported by experts from the national VET agency Penka Nikolova and the Bulgarian ministry of Education and Science that focused in particular on the State Educational Standards for acquiring of vocational qualification in profession, based on the learning outcomes and on the 10 Common European Principles for validation of non-formal and informal learning. The first day was closed with group discussions of the raised questions problems, challenges and perspectives in more interactive framework – World Café, which resulted in the elaboration of national action plan for Bulgaria.
The second day of the event visualized the Lifelong Learning in the context of the European Educational Programs Lingua, Leonardo da Vinci „Language competencies” etc. by the means of several projects coordinated by Bulgarian organizations and winners of the European Quality Prize. The business perspective was neither neglected – within the third part of the Lifelong Learning Days in Bulgaria 2007 Radosveta Drakeva from the Adult Eductaion Center “Znanie” in Sofia presented the so called ROI (Return on Investment in Training) instrument which was then discussed and tested in small groups. One of the biggest advantages of the ROI methodology is that it can be used by training institutions, offering initial and continuous vocational training and qualification, as well as by employers and human resource managers of small and middle enterprises in order to calculate the financial impacts of the training on the productivity of the company and thus, as a solid argument for higher investments in training.
The 7th Lifelong Learning Days in Bulgaria were organized by the Bulgarian office of the DVV international in cooperation with the Federation of Societies for Spread of Knowledge (FSSK), the Human Ressource Development Centre (HRDC) in Sofia and GTZ in Bulgaria.
