Labour market, education, employment: contemporary challenges and perspectives

By helenewNews
A picture from the conference

Words by Gabriela Yordanova
On 28-29 of November 2016, the Bulgarian Negotiate team took part in an international conference “LABOUR MARKET, EDUCATION, EMPLOYMENT: CONTEMPORARY CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES”. The event was organized by the Institute for the Study of Societies and Knowledge at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (ips-bas.org) and Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Sofia (kas.de). The conference was attended by the Minister of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy – Zornica Rusinova, the President of the Trade Union Podkrepa – Dimitar Manolov, the Executive Director of Manpower Bulgaria – Nadia Vassileva (member of the Bulgarian Stakeholder Committee) and Ivan Neykov from the Balkan Institute for Labour and Social Policy, as well as, media representatives: news agency BGNES and radio Sofia at Bulgarian National Radio. The conference was opened by special greetings from Detlef Lingemann, Ambassador of FR Germany in Sofia. Among the guests were representatives of the Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, students and young people.

The guests and the participants discussed important and key themes and principles of the state of the labour market, challenges and prospects for youth in finding a job, social inequalities in employment in adulthood, innovation and eco-entrepreneurship in Bulgaria and other topical issues.

The NEGOTIATE project participated with three presentations on various topics: “The role of employers in the labour market: self-assessment and evaluation of job applicants” by Rumiana Stoilova, Gabriela Yordanova and Veneta Krusteva, “Vertical qualification mismatch: A way out of unemployment or a waste of human capital?” by Pepka Bojadjieva and Petya Ilieva and “Strategies to improve labour market integration of young people: Analysing linkages between horizontal and vertical policy coordination” by Ljuba Spasova. Presented topics concerning Negotiate project received wide media coverage – both in leading print and in electronic media.

The conference was closed with presentation of discussant Dirk Hofäcker (University Duisburg-Essen, Germany) on topic “The Future of Work and Employment”. Dirk Hofäcker is a team member of the EXCEPT project (except-project.eu). Maria Zeliazkova from the same consortium had presented results of the EXCEPT project at the conference.