Scientific paper ID 2163 : 2021/4

The system of dual vocational education and training has proven to be a key tool in Europe”s most developed economies to provide young qualified professionals who enter the labor market directly from school and contribute to economic growth and high youth employment. In this system, the leading partner of the schools is the private sector, which not only invests in its future staff, but also shares the responsibility for the quality of vocational training.

In response to the growing needs of the Bulgarian economy and high youth unemployment in Bulgaria, the dual training system has been implemented since 2015 through pilot projects aimed at testing this type of training and based on the experience gained to proceed to more large-scale application of this system in the country.

The most comprehensive and systemically significant of these projects is the project ”Swiss support for the introduction of the principles of dual education in the Bulgarian educational system” (DOMINO project), which is implemented under the Bulgarian-Swiss Cooperation Program in the period 2015-2019 jointly with the Ministry of Education and Science with the support of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the Ministry of Economy. The vision of the project s a sustainable Bulgarian system of vocational school education, which is directly related to the needs of business. The creation of a reproducible model and capacity for the introduction of the system of dual vocational education and training in Bulgaria is the main goal of the project.