site.btaBulgarian IT Association Organizes Round Table in Support of Education

The Bulgarian Association for Information Technology (BAIT) organized a round table on "BAIT in support of education". The discussion took place Tuesday at the World Trade Centre here.

"The topic of Bulgarian education is extremely important for BAIT. Precisely in order to be keeping up and able to respond to the dynamics in the development of technologies entering the education system, as a nationally responsible association, we decided that we will continue with such an educational event this year, but in a new format," said Vessela Kalacheva - Chief Executive Officer of BAIT.

"When you have a unique specialty, no matter if it is in secondary or higher education, you end up with a lack of enough adequate specialists to teach in these specialties, and to build specialists," said Prof. Miglena Temelkova - Rector of the University of Telecommunications and Post (UTP) and Chairwoman of the Council of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions in Bulgaria.  

The business representatives presented the relationship of their companies with Bulgarian education, and the purpose of their work, in the direction of their strengthening.

"In recent years the Bulgarian employees entering our market are extremely adequate. Despite the difficulties and discussions about the generations that are coming, about their disengagement, the employees are there, and they are much more focused, with much better preparation, purely vertical - something that did not happen in previous years", said Ivo Rusev - Chief Commercial Officer of Telelink Business Services. He added that as a company Telelink partners with many universities and their employees are also lecturers in some of them to be in close contact with the education system.

"Over the last 20 years, we have been very active in the field of education, both as one of the main providers of technology in the educational environment in all aspects - from kindergartens to higher education and the Ministry of Education, and as a company that puts education together with healthcare as one of the main priorities," said Yanko Bakhchevanov, Head of Sales at Kontrax.

"As one of the largest companies in the IT sector globally, Oracle puts an extremely high emphasis on education, especially in the direction of developing digital skills, and providing as many resources as possible to educational institutions, with the main goal of getting these resources to students, that is, to the people who build the future," said Velina Topalova, Senior Sales Representative of Oracle Academy.

The forum was attended by caretaker Deputy Education and Science Minister Natalia Miteva, who touched upon the topics of her Ministry's vision of digitalization in Bulgarian education, digital literacy, the introduction of artificial intelligence and the importance of STEM centers for Bulgarian schools.