Bridging the gap between the education system and the public sector in Bulgaria
Summary
Liz Rhodes, MBE, Director of the National Council for work Experience (NCWE), was invited to work with the Business Foundation for Education in Bulgaria this summer, to help with the development of a work placement model for the public sector. In this article, she gave us a summary of the background to the project and the work she carried out.
Article
Mention you are going to Bulgaria and you might get the odd look and comments along the lines of where is that exactly and don't they go in for assassinating people with poison-tipped umbrellas? But times have changed and Bulgaria is now poised to become a member of the European Union in 2007, thereby, it could be said, setting about reclaiming its European heritage. For it is a European country, situated in the Balkans, with a history that goes back to Alexander the Great, followed by being part of the Roman Empire and Byzantium and then part of the Ottoman Empire, before coming under the yoke of communism. In between these various dominant masters it has had periods of freedom, but not until 1991 has it really been able to take responsibility for governing itself.
My reason for going was an invitation to work with the newly established Business Foundation for Education and help them develop a work placement model for the public sector, particularly the State Administration, their civil service, at both national and regional levels.
Before it can be accepted as a member of the EU, Bulgaria has to demonstrate improvements in the way the government is run. A recent EU Comprehensive Monitoring Report said, among a number of other things, that it needs to focus 'on strengthening its overall administrative capacity' . One of the reasons for its current weak administrative capacity is the quality of the civil servants themselves, particularly those that are taken on from university who do not have the necessary skills that public sector employers need. For the most part these skills can be acquired in the workplace but require time and public resources, things that are not readily available. The State Administration is also finding it difficult to recruit appropriate individuals.
In order to start addressing this situation a project was put forward by the Business Foundation for Education in Sofia for funding from the British Government through the British Embassy, to develop and introduce a work placement model for national and local administrations by the summer of 2007. This would focus on placing undergraduates/graduates in various Ministries at both national and regional level so that they would be able to get a taste of working in the public sector with a view to taking up careers there. Through the work placement model, moreover, it is hoped that potential recruits will have a better understanding of the skills required for working in the State Administration and thus cut down on time and resources required to settle them in.
It was also hoped that the work placement model would build on the work done by Terry Jones, Careers Adviser from the Careers Group, University of London, in the autumn of 2005. He had also been out to Bulgaria and developed a methodology for work placements in the private sector and this was my starting point to ensure that there was a consistency and common standards in the way work placements/internships were organised across the country. It was thanks to Terry that I received the invitation to go to Bulgaria in the first place.
In addition, the project would look at how the State Administration, through a work placement programme, would be able to work more closely with universities. At present there are 50 universities in the country, many of which focus on one or two specialised areas, e.g. agriculture. About half of these are currently setting up career centres.
Ultimately, it was hoped that any model developed would lead to work placements/internships being embedded into the curriculum, something that would require legislative changes.
My visit lasted five days and I had a series of meetings with different government departments to learn about current work experience activity. My task was then to make some recommendations for a work placement programme that would enable the State Administration to introduce undergraduates to the way in which the government is organised and run. Once the programme is up and running it is hoped that many will be subsequently recruited to work for the government.
My report and recommendations have now been submitted and I am waiting to hear how matters will be progressed. It has been a fascinating experience, and indeed a privilege, to be able to work with people who want to demonstrate that their country is fit to join the EU; in return I have learnt a bit more about a country that has been very much part of the western tradition.
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