NATIONAL AGENCY FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING, BULGARIA

1. NATIONAL AGENCY FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING, BULGARIA The 4th meeting of the SEEVET-Net 11-12 July, 2011 Chisinau, Moldova

2. STATUTE AND MAIN ACTIVITIES OF NAVET • NAVET is a specialized body to the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria for licensing of activities and coordination of the institutions related to vocational guidance, training and education. It was established in 2000 with VET Law. • The activities of NAVET are organized in the following main directions: - Participation in the development of policy documents in the field of VET and their implementation - Development and updating of the basic documents for regulation of vocational education and training system in the country – List of Professions for Vocational Education and Training and State Vocational Standards for acquiring qualification in professions - Licensing and control of Centers for Vocational Training of adults (employed and unemployed persons) - Licensing and control of Centers for Information and Vocational Guidance

3. TRIPARTITE PRINCIPLE – MAIN CHARACTERISTIC OF NAVET Equal representative quota in the Managing Board and Expert Commissions in vocational areas of: • Ministries • Nationtionaly representative employers’ organizations • Nationtionaly representative employees’ organizations • Cooperation of NAVET with MEYS, MLSP, EA – participation of NAVET in interinstitutional working groups for development of policy documents and for improvement of the legislative basis of VET • Cooperation Agreements between NAVET and all nationally representative employers’ and employees’ organizations, as well as with branch organization in different economic sector

4. CONTRIBUTION OF NAVET TO QUALITY ASSURANCE OF VET • Maintaining of adequate to the labour market requirements and needs List of professions for VET– classified in vocational areas and levels of vocational qualifications (4 levels according to the complexity of work tasks and activities) • Development and updating of State Vocational Standards (SVS) for acquiring qualification in profession – learning outcomes (LO) oriented since 2007, since last year a process of restructuring learning outcomes description in units of LO oriented to implementation of credit system • Licensing of Centres for vocational training – the procedures include evaluation of the training content, facilities and staff against the requirements defined in the SVS, in the evaluation process experts in the respective vocational area involved • Follow up control by experts from NAVET, joint inspections with Employment Agency’s experts

5. MAIN NATIONAL GOALS FOR THE VET SYSTEMIN BULGARIA • To create NQF applicable for all national educational and qualifications levels • To elaborate BGCVET on the principles and technical specifications of ECVET • To secure quality of the VET system • To build a coherent national VET system as a synergic overarching architecture, comprising all instruments (NQF, ECVET, ECTS, EQARF, Europass)

6. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN VET NATIONAL LEVEL – LEGISLATIVE BASIS LAW FOR VET • Regulates the VET system – the VET system includes vocational guidance, vocational education and vocational training • Amendments are under development aimed at ensuring legislative prerequisites for implementation of EU instruments in VET – implementation of national quality assurance model, implementation of credit transfer in VET, functioning of a system for validation of non-formal and informal learning and building up of a lifelong career guidance system

7. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN VET AT NATIONAL LEVEL - NQF National Qualifications Framework • Draft of NQF has been developed and published in June 2011 for public discussion which will continue until September 2011 • It includes one preparatory 0 level and 8 levels

8. PREREQUISITES FOR ECVET MPLEMENTATION NATIONAL CONTEXT • 8 levels of the draft NQF National VET system has 4 levels which are compatible to the EQF-levels • The List of professions Every qualification from the List of professions has its definite level – I, II, III or IV • The State Vocational Standards (SVS)arelearning outcomes oriented • Each qualification is divided in competences and each competence could be specific for the particular qualification or common for several qualifications • In SVS the competences are structured in two groups: General professional competences Specific competencies for the specialization • The assessment of the learning outcomes achieved is on the basis of criteria and indicators for assessment, which are part of a National Examination Programme for the acquisition of a vocational qualification for a profession

9. NATIONAL APPROACH TO ECVET IMPLEMENTATION • In the SVS for each qualification there is a division of a qualification in a set of competences • The competences are described in terms of LO • The competences could be easily designed into Units of learning outcomes • Determination of Units common for 2/3 qualifications in the particular area at different level of NQS/EQF. These common Units have different weight in different qualifications and ensure upgrading of the professional career of individuals • The approach and its implementation is in a process of development, allocation of credit points is still under consideration

10. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RECOMMENDATION FOR EQARF FOR VET • Analysis of quality assurance in VET has been developed – assessment of the legislative framework, results of the activities implemented by the key actors aimed at improvement of access, training content, methods and facilities with respect to labour market current and perspective requirements and needs; outlines the main directions of actions for the future • Model of quality assurance system in VET incorporating quality indicators for each phase of the quality assurance cycle is under development