Education Bulgaria Project #30895

Provide Career Counseling for At-Risk Teenagers

by Step for Bulgaria Foundation

Project Report | Oct 23, 2021
At-risk teenagers will organize career workshops

By Asya Stancheva | Project coordinator

In the last summer months we held analysis of the results achieved during the past school year, as well as the areas in which we need to look for new approaches to working with young people.

The indicators of success that we monitored during the past school year are a) the development of knowledge in students about the relationship between the level of education they have and opportunities to start a job, b) the attitude that career choice and successful career depends on their knowledge and skills, c) skills for working in a digital environment, d) knowledge of various professional options and knowledge of the requirements for starting a job.

59% of surveyed students give examples of the relationship between education and job opportunities. Unfortunately, their aspirations are for starting a job that requires low professional qualifications. Students prefer professions that are familiar to them and are performed in their close family environment.

70% of students indicate that the choice of career depends on themselves, their interests and desires. 66% answered that their professional success depends on the efforts they make and the education they receive. Qualitative analyzes, however, show that this statement is more based on the meetings and conversations we have with students. Many students can give two or three examples of exactly what effort they need to put in.

A large percentage of students still have difficulty working with digital applications. This is largely due to the lack of specialized classes focused on working in a digital environment, as well as the fact that they participate in career workshops via smartphones because they do not have computers.

As a result of the conducted analyzes, during this school year we will continue to work in the direction of building attitudes and knowledge of how education influences the future professional success. We will continue to meet at-risk teens with inspirational volunteers who work in a variety of professional fields, and of course we will include more experts related to the professions of the future.

The main focus continues to be the building of real skills through which students will be able to get involved more successfully in working life.

To this end, this school year we will launch a new project in which students themselves will initiate, plan, organize and conduct career workshops. we already have a ready plan for working with the first student who will organize his career workshop. We will soon write in detail about the success of this first project.

We thank all our donors and supporters, without whom these ideas and projects would not be a reality. Thank you and stay healthy!

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Jun 28, 2021
73 career workshop for the academic 2020-2021

By Asya Stancheva | Project coordinator

Students work on the design thinking method

In 2 days the school year for the young people we work with in Bulgaria will end and we are happy to share our successes with you.

Although this school year was challenging, filled with worries and social isolation for students, thanks to each of you, thanks to the support of volunteers, teachers and school leaders Step for Bulgaria Foundation managed to organize and implement 73 workshops for professional information and motivation of students. young people from underprivileged communities. Most of these workshops were held in a remote online format.

The workshops were attended by over 120 students from 8-12 grades in 6 groups from different small towns and villages in Bulgaria. This year we managed to include students from the town of Targovishte, which is 320 km from our capital. Together with the dedicated work of teachers at school, we organized 7 online workshops, thanks to which the students' understanding of the importance of acquiring and developing digital skills deepened. Various volunteers took part in all 7 workshops.

A total of 28 volunteers from various companies and professional fields took part in all 73 career workshops. Each volunteer presented to the students his professional and personal path, told about the professional challenges he faces and the professional satisfaction he receives in his work.

Together with the volunteer, the students had the opportunity to immerse themselves in his profession by solving professional cases - processing an insurance policy, creating a work schedule, creating a calendar for Facebook ads, generating ideas for new tastes for chocolates, dealing with customer complaints, planning tourist trip, etc.

Over the past year, we have built long-term partnerships with a large international retail company, which has included its employees in the workshops and provided an opportunity for summer internships for students. An active supporter in the workshops was the Training Manager of the company, which conducted workshops in which he introduced the students to their labor rights as employees (employment contracts, leave, overtime, additional incentives). As part of the career counseling, the young people had the opportunity to prepare their CVs and receive guidelines for successfully submitting a job interview.

Next month we will collect and analyze the results achieved by working with students during this school year. The main indicators that we monitor are a) the development of knowledge in students about the relationship between the level of education they have and opportunities to start a job, b) the attitude that career choice and successful career depends on their knowledge and skills, c) skills for working in a digital environment, d) knowledge of various professional options and knowledge of the requirements for starting a job.

Thank you very much for your support this school year. Our success in working with students is due to your constant support.

Students create a work schedule plan

Students generate ideas on how to look for work

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Mar 1, 2021
Two more groups of students joined our program

By Asya Stancheva | Project coordinator

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