site.btaIndustrial Association Analysis: Vocational Education Admissions Should Reflect Local Business Needs

Future vocational education admissions should reflect not only approved places and enrolment rates, but also local business needs, according to a comparative analysis released by the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) on Monday.

Strong interest among students is an important indicator, but it cannot in itself justify expanding admissions when the occupation concerned has no clear connection to the regional labour market, the analysis said.

Under the Together for Sustainable Employment project, BIA prepared labour market analyses covering five regions: Burgas, Vratsa, Dobrich, Smolyan and Shumen. Each analysis contains a special section examining the implementation of the approved admissions plans for vocational classes at secondary schools during the academic years from 2019/20 to 2024/25.

The data cover six academic years and examine three indicators: approved admissions, actual enrolment and vocational qualification certificates issued.

The authors believe that occupations which are both in demand among employers and attract sustained interest from students should be supported and developed. For occupations with chronically low or zero enrolment, it is necessary to determine whether the problem is due to students’ limited awareness, insufficiently visible career prospects, the way the occupation is presented, the organization of training, or a deeper mismatch between the places offered and the actual needs of the local economy.

The data indicate that vocational education has the potential to be linked more directly to regional economies. To achieve this, however, admissions must be planned realistically, monitored and adjusted not only according to students’ preferences and previous years’ results, but also according to proven demand for workers among local businesses, the authors said. In their view, this requires employers to play a more active role in determining the occupations and specializations that offer genuine prospects for employment and career development in the respective region.

Occupations attracting sustained interest and showing relatively stable enrolment in most regions include application programmer, Web administrator, economist and IT specialist, computer systems technician, graphic designer, economist and operational accountant.

In Burgas, there is also strong and stable interest in tourism, transport, construction and manufacturing, including construction technician, mechatronics, and occupations related to chemical and food technologies. Occupations attracting weak interest in Burgas include laboratory assistant and maritime specializations. Some technical occupations, including electrician and forestry technician, have also recorded a decline.

In Dobrich, the electrician occupation has been unsuccessful. Admissions are approved every year, but a class has never been formed. Other problematic occupations include tailor, fitter, laboratory assistant and food service and entertainment establishment worker.

In Shumen, there has been persistently low interest in occupations including silicate production operator, transport equipment mechanic, electrical technician and cook. Even traditionally strong occupations such as application programmer and economist and IT specialist recorded a sharp decline towards the end of the period.

In Vratsa, sustained enrolment was also recorded in programmes for WEB administrator, application programmer, computer systems technician, graphic designer, designer, systems programmer, economist and computer graphics specialist. In the final year, 236 places remained unfilled. The data show an improvement compared with the beginning of the period, followed by a moderate decline over the last two years.

The situation is most critical in Smolyan, where there is virtually no clearly defined group of occupations maintaining stable enrolment rates close to 100% in most years, the analysis said.