From October 1 to 3 in Burgas were held the First National Days of Lifelong Learning. The three-day forum was attended by over 300 educational experts, teachers, school principals, representatives of business, local government, NGOs and guests from abroad.
On October 2, 2015 in Expo “Flora – Burgas” the Deputy Minister of Education and Science Ms. Vania Kastreva opened the international conference entitled “Implementation of the European Agenda for Adult Learning – results and exchange of good practices.” The forum was part of the Project № 554834-EPP-1-2014-1-BG-EPPKA3-AL-AGENDA “National coordinators in the implementation of the European Agenda for Adult Learning”, implemented with the financial support of the European Union Programme for education , training, youth and sport “Erasmus +”.
“Already three years Bulgaria is a part of the common European efforts to implement the European agenda for adult learning. The Ministry of Education and Science has taken this important step in response to the current state of the national sector of adult learning. It is connected to the existing challenges in respect to the overall picture of the national human capital: high unemployment, a shortage of workers with the necessary training in enterprises, an aging population and the need to accelerate reforms in education and training “- said Mrs. Kastreva and added: “Today’s conference is one of the highlights of the main national event to promote adult learning – The Days for Lifelong Learning. It will not only ensure a transparency and publicity for implementation of the national strategy for lifelong learning for the period 2014 – 2020 but will provide information on the implementation of activities and tasks set out in the first Action Plan for 2014. It is also an effective form of training, a challenge for self-assessment and respectively – assessment of the others. A person can develop professionally when he has senses to evaluate his own work, evaluate the work of the others and build on what has been achieved through experience, learn from everything around him. I hope that this conference will not just find professional satisfaction, but will leave us with many new ideas, because lifelong learning presumes daily enrichment of what you know, but at the same time means donating what you know. Because only the strong and capable person is not afraid to share what he know.”- said Mrs. Kastreva and expressed satisfaction that Burgas has already been nominated as the town of lifelong learning.”
Mrs. Valentina Deykova, head of the “Lifelong Learning” in the Ministry of Education, National Coordinator for adult learning and project manager spoke about the implementation of the European Agenda for Adult Learning in Bulgaria. Presentations on the forum focus were made by Orlin Kouzov, State Expert “Information and Communication Technologies” – MES and Julian Gotchev, State Expert “Lifelong Learning” – MES.
Best practices were shared by Lilly Stoilova – teacher in 63 Primary school “Hristo Botev” – Sofia, which is also the winner of the prize for innovation at the European Literacy Week, Venelin Todorov from “Green Bourgas” Foundation and Anna Kroushkova from Association ” Social center “- Burgas.
The practices shared on the event can be found HERE.
Parallel to the conference on the territory of Expocenter “Flora Bourgas” citizens and guests of the seaside town were able to find the production of adults from across the country who are students in vocational schools.
Photos from the exhibition can be found HERE.
That evening at the restaurant “Primoretz” at an official ceremony for the first time were presented annual awards for contribution to the development of the sector for adult learning. In the category “Regional Coordinator” Assoc. Prof. Sevdalina Turmanova received the award from the Project Manager Ms. Valentina Deykova. With an annual award in the category “Media” was awarded the newspaper “Uchitelsko delo”. Mrs. Violeta Ilieva, head of the Regional Education Inspectorate – Burgas, presented the award to Mrs. Tanya Novakova, regional coordinator of the Syndicate of Bulgarian Teachers of Burgas. In the category “Business organization” the prize was awarded to “JLP” – Ltd. and Mr. Dimitar Lyudiev received the award from Mrs. Rosica Iankova from the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria. In the category “State institution” the prize was awarded to the “Employment Agency” and Mr. Rosen Simeonov accepted the award from Assoc. Prof. Sevdalina Turmanova, deputy governor of Burgas. In the category “Lifetime Achievement” was honored Mrs. Penka Ganova, a longtime expert in the field of vocational education and training in Bulgaria. She received the award and special greeting, which highlighted her contribution by Ms. Vania Kastreva, Deputy Minister of Education and Science, who is also Chairman of the National Coordination Group for Lifelong Learning.