site.btaCentre for Human Resource Development Wins European Award for Successful Practice in Vocational Education, Training

The Hungarian capital, Budapest, hosted the annual meeting of the National VET Teams under the theme "Expanding Horizons through International Networks in VET". The event was organized by the Hungarian National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme - Tempus Public Foundation, with the support of the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Culture and Sport of the European Commission, the Centre for Human Resource Development (CHRD) said.

The meeting was attended by representatives of 13 European national agencies - Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Estonia, Czechia, Lithuania, Latvia, Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Turkiye. Each country presented two successful practices from the annual work programmes of their national expert teams on vocational education and training.

CHRD was presented by Andrean Lazarov and Dr. Lilia Elenkova - national experts on Vocational Education and Training (VET) at the Centre. Lazarov demonstrated the established practice called "It's showtime - conducting a speed job interview", which is implemented with students from vocational high schools and with students with special educational needs, within the framework of regional events of the National VET Expert Team in Plovdiv, Veliko Tarnovo and Sandanski. At these interviews, students from 9th to 12th grades from 12 vocational high schools in Bulgaria had the opportunity to conduct their first job interview and find out what are the difficult questions and how to deal with them.

Dr. Elenkova presented the second successful practice - "Skills Panorama", which took place in Veliko Tarnovo, Sandanski and Sofia in 2023 and 2024. At these events, over 200 students from across Bulgaria and their teachers had the opportunity to present their achievements and products in front of audience of interested parties and business representatives.

After the presentations of all 26 successful European practices, there was an electronic votе in which representatives of each national agency had the opportunity to cast their votes in favour of the three most impressive practices. "It's showtime - conducting a speed job interview" was ranked first, receiving the organizers' grand prize.