Digital clubs will provide access to technical and learning resources to people across the country

760 digital clubs across the country will enable people from different social groups to participate in the process of acquiring skills in courses for professional qualification and retraining. Through these clubs they will receive technical and training resources, available through the National Virtual Training Platform. This was stated by the Director of the Center for Human Resource Development and Regional Initiatives (CHRDRI) Ivan Bakalov during the first regional meeting for 2024 of the Ministry of Education and Science as a National Coordinator of Adult Education under the Agenda 4 Skills project.

He explained that establishing these clubs is among the activities set out in Component 1 of the investment under the National Recovery and Sustainability Plan for the development of a national virtual platform for adult learning and will be essential for reaching a larger number of people who can acquire skills, including digital ones, which are among the mandatory factors for successful realization on the labor market.

"Since the beginning of 2023, our team from the Center, together with colleagues from the Employment Agency, are working on the implementation of the process of conducting and certifying basic and intermediate level digital trainings. Hopefully, by the beginning of 2026 we will have the National Virtual Platform for Adult Education as a core including well-developed tools for training in a digital environment – all available as a single resource," he said.

Director Bakalov added that in the beginning of 2024, the campaign for training through Providers of Training with vouchers from the labor offices and certification of basic and intermediate digital skills was launched. People can obtain their digital skills certificate either following a successful training and testing of their knowledge and competences via the Module for persons with vouchers from the Employment Agency or through the Module for self-certification where individuals with higher level of digital skills acquired from informal learning can be certified.

"If we want to reach a point where acquiring new skills is a linear and easily accessible process, we will have to use all mechanisms available in Bulgaria - the tools of the vocational training system, providing opportunities for acquiring skills from informal learning and different sources of funding," he added.