Prepare Bulgarian Kids for the Jobs of the Future

The past three months marked an intensive and successful beginning of the new school year. The period laid the foundation for the upcoming months, and we are closing the calendar year with a sense of accomplishment and gratitude for your continued support.

What we achieved

New school year has begun successfully

During this reporting period, we carried out an admission campaign in all 41 settlements across Bulgaria and launched most cohorts, despite the challenges posed by the pandemic. We are happy to report that, thanks to the support of all our donors and partners, this year we will:

• Offer training to over 2800 students in our programs;
• Carry out 129 cohorts in 41 settlements;
• Work with 92 contractors.

We would like to highlight some milestones we achieved in the past three months:

• Successful admission campaign: in September and October, interested students had the opportunity to apply online for our cohorts throughout the country. Students in grades 4-12 could choose between 5 interactive programs in the field of digital technology and programming, each with a duration of 100 teaching hours and corresponding to their age and interests. For the youngest (grades 1-3) programming workshops are planned in Sofia in partnership with CoderDojo Bulgaria. We had over 5000 applicants.
• The campaign included coordination with all our contractors, local partners, educational institutions, regional and national media and active initiatives for announcing the opportunity on the local level.
• Start of teaching in our partner STEM centers: our new initiative, partnership with 6 schools providing programs and teacher training to be implemented in their STEM centers , which is funded by the Ministry of Education, has officially begun. Through our partnerships, we trained 17teaching staff and provided them with learning materials in different combinations of our educational programs, based on the priorities and strategy of each school.
• In order to fulfill our ambitious plans of expanding our reach, we are continuing to engage with current and have started conversations with some potential new partners and donors to attract support for the next school year.

Our impact in the last 11 years

As mentioned in previous reports, this year we worked in cooperation with our main donor, the America for Bulgaria Foundation, on an external evaluation carried out by an independent expert organization. GlobalMetrics, a sociological agency, conducted an impact assessment of our work which included interviews and surveys with teachers, alumni and their parents, as well as several detailed case studies. We are dedicated to continuous improvement and data-based decision making, and the findings in the report give us insights for our future development and assure us that what we have done until now truly matters.

Some key highlights we’re proud to share:

• In the last 2 academic years, TAS participants received 39 of the 64 awarded medals at national competitions. TAS trainees constituted 61% of the Bulgarian participants at the six international competitions in the past three years for which data was available.
• TAS has a significant impact on the labor market in Bulgaria: In 2020, 78% of our alumni who worked were engaged in activities that are related to computer technologies and programming, 93% of the estimated 1,850 18+ TAS alumni who had IT-related jobs worked in Bulgaria, amounting to about 4.5% of the whole work force employed in the sector.
• A total of 91% of our current and former teachers indicated that they had improved their teaching methods by upgrading already known or learning new approaches. 94% of them applied what they learned in TAS in their regular practice.
• The skills junior trainees reported most frequently to have improved are: development of logical thinking (74%), programming skills (63%), game-making skills (55%), and increased speed of learning and processing information (54%). Simultaneously, students discovered their interest in the field of computer technologies (72%), increased their confidence when using computers and the Internet (68%), and took advantage of opportunities to communicate with their peers who have similar interests (65%).

Read more here: A Tech Program May Hold the Key to Bulgaria’s Brain Drain

Looking ahead

This school year promises to be as challenging as the previous one, due to the ever-changing circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic which affects students and teachers alike. Our trainings are already underway and will give over 2800 children and young people the opportunity to improve their digital skills and prepare for the jobs of the future. The format of our trainings (online or in-person) for all cohorts will follow the official healthcare guidelines, observing the safety of our students and contractors.

Over the next months, our efforts will be directed at the successful delivery of our programs across the country, retaining students’ interest and motivation, supporting teachers, securing funding and donor support from current partners and attracting new ones for the next school year, and working on delivering improvements to our learning system and programs.

We would like to take the time to extend our utmost gratitude to you, our donors, who are making this journey for all our kids possible. We would not be able to make it without your support, and we have lots more in store for the future!

Since our last report in June, our work focused on preparations for the upcoming 2021/2022 school year. Thanks to your support, we have the funding to deliver on the ambitious plan to launch the record-breaking 130 cohorts in 41 settlements in Bulgaria, providing free digital skills and programming training to 2600 students. This will be an increase of our reach with 18% compared to last year.

What we achieved

Over the summer, we took in the lessons learned from the past school year and worked towards delivering an even better one, regardless of the conditions. Together, we managed to reach the following milestones during this reporting period:

• Successfully concluded all cohorts for the 2020/2021 school year. You may take a look at our infographic, summarizing some key data from the year;
• Updated our programs and all our systems to match the changing needs of our teachers and students and take their user experience to a new level in the upcoming 2021-2022 school year.
• We recruited new additions to our team of contractors, expanding it to a total of 95 educators delivering our programs across the country;
• Finalized attracting the necessary donor funding to support out ambitious plan to open 130 cohorts this year, attracting many new businesses, municipalities, and individual donors, and retaining most of our existing ones.

The highlight of our summer efforts was our 7-day team building and training. From 14^th until 20^th August, we delivered an intensive teacher training for all our new and existing contractors, preparing them professionally to deliver our training programs and work with the updated systems and processes. Additionally, we combined the hard work with some socializing and fun. Teachers and core team had time toget acquainted, form stable work relationships, feel engaged with our shared mission, and made sure we step into the new year motivated and inspired.

This summer we also gave the beginning of an exciting new initiative. We formed a STEM program partnership with 6 schools in the country, which is funded by the Ministry of Education. The program allows schools to create their own STEM centers and provide specialized training to their students. Through our partnerships, we trained teaching staff and provided them with learning materials to use throughout the year. If successful, this project may be the foundation of future collaborations with schools throughout the country, updating curriculums and teaching methods and changing the lives of even more children.

Looking ahead

On September 1^st, we officially opened our admission campaign for the 2021-2022 school year. The applications will be held entirely online from September 1^st until October 10^th and are open to students grades 4-12 in 41 settlements in the country. Students in grades 4-12 can choose between 5 interactive programs in the field of digital technology and programming, each with a duration of 100 teaching hours and corresponding to their age and interests. For the youngest (grades 1-3) programming events are planned in Sofia in partnership with CoderDojo Bulgaria.

We plan to start our trainings in October and give over 2600 children and young people the opportunity to study programming and digital sciences for free in our 130 groups throughout Bulgaria. The format of our trainings (online or in-person) for all cohorts will follow the official healthcare guidelines to prevent the spread of Covid-19, observing the health and safety of our students and contractors. Hence, we are prepared to deliver our programs online, if necessary, while we do hope students will be able to meet at least several times to get to know each other and form a better learning dynamic.

For the next few months, our focus will be the successful start of the school year in all locations, retaining funding and donor support from current partners and attracting new ones, and working on key improvements to our programs.

We’d like to extend our gratitude to you, our supporters, for making it possible for us to train 2600 students completely free of charge. We would not be able to make it without you, thanks for joining us in preparing Bulgarian children for the jobs of the future!