Universities and Business Discuss Cooperation on a Two-Day Forum in Sofia

Universities and business will discuss their cooperation in Sofia. The two-day forum, which starts on 22^nd of February at the National Palace of Culture, is within the framework of the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The topic of its tenth edition is cooperation between higher education and the private sector as a driving force for modernization and growth. The forum brings together Bulgarian and foreign representatives of higher education, business, local and regional authorities and will provide opportunities for exchange of experience, sharing good practices and searching for new ideas for the future.

Youth unemployment remains one of the serious problems in united Europe. About 10 years ago, the reason was the economic crisis. Today - some of these people are still unemployed, Jens Christensen, Director for Education and Culture of the EC said.

Jens Nymand Christensen, director of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture: There are several million young unemployed in Europe, and the problem is that other young people go to the labour market every year. So there is a risk that some of them to remain unemployed for years or have temporary work, work for nothing, for no money.

The mismatch between demand and supply on the labour market creates additional obstacles, he added.

Businesses in many countries offer thousands of vacancies, but cannot find people to occupy them. It's absurd. Young people sarch for work, want to join the labour market, but do not have the skills the business expects. Today we train young people for professions that do not exist.

Therefore, young people need to acquire skills and qualifications that match demand for the labour market, even in 3 or 5 years, for example.

Petar Nikolov, Bulgaria’s Deputy Minister of Education and Science said that member states will work on developing the guiding principles for European university networks, the mutual recognition of diplomas and the optimization of language learning in order to promote quality, mobility and cross-border cooperation.

And yet, measures to tackle youth unemployment - universities and businesses need to invest more in the development of digital skills in students.

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