1. Round Table II – How to improve the quality of apprenticeships Towards a European quality framework for apprenticeship and work-based learning: best practices and trade union contributions Round Table II – How to improve the quality of apprenticeships Yuliya Simeonova - KNSB Executive Secretary Brussels, 15 October 2013

2. Legislative framework & practices Employment Promotion Act (effective from 1.01.2002) – offers funding for unemployed workers, of all ages, to undertake workplace training for a six month period with possibility for further employment; Article 55 d) stipulates paid apprenticeship up to 12 months Craft Act (2001) - regulates the conditions and rules for apprenticeships, which includes training with a master craftsman Labour Code amendments prepared Tradition of offering apprenticeships in Production-training centres until 1989, now concentrated in the craft sector

3. National Action Plan for Employment “My chance to show who I am” (2010 and 2011) Provided package of guidance, motivation & 6-months apprenticeship with a master craftsman to low educated & low qualified job seekers up to 29 years old, who dropped out of the school system. Over 30% got labour contracts.

4. National Action Plan for Employment Partners: Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria Workers’ Education and Training College Employment Agency Bulgarian Chamber of Crafts Bulgarian Association of Microenterprises Association of Entrepreneurs in Micro, Small and Medium sized Enterprises and in Rural Areas

5. National Action Plan for Employment “Chance to work” (2012 and 2013) Offering guidance, motivation, “Team work” key competence & 6-month work placements for unemployed people as health careassistants in certain hospitals. The concept has been extended nation-wide for unemployed people 50+. Over 50% got permanent labour contracts.

6. Proposals KNSB is of the opinion that in order to enhance quality in apprenticeship systems the EU should: put forward proposals to ensure standards, defined as minimum outcomes of the training process; to clarify the roles of the different actors; and to improve the training skills of workplace mentors/ master craftsman support programmes to enable practitioners to exchange information and experience as regards the different apprenticeship schemes support young people but it should open up apprenticeship schemes to unemployed adults.

7. MEMORANDUM ON SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BULGARIA (2013-2017) Employment promotion, life-long learning (LLL), labour market transitions: Matching learning results with labour market requirements (state educational standards) Labour and social security rights – in the secondary education of young people Introduction of European instruments for LLL after a public debate of the normative documents Regulation of internship & apprenticeship in all forms Flexible pathways for entering into and exiting from the education system

8. MEMORANDUM ON SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT OF BULGARIA (2013-2017) Introducing a modernized model of the dual education and training system High-tech centers for practical training, internships and apprenticeships Establishment of a system for adult continuing vocational education and training at the work place Improvement of dialogue between public employment services (PES) and employers in the private sector Providing a complex of individual services for facilitation the labour market transitions