Youth employment measures

Flexicurity measures focusing on young people 

Reconciliation of private and working life for young people.

Funding of schemes/initiatives

 Youth employment measures

The main purpose of the Career Start Program (Програма „Старт на кариерата“) is to provide opportunities to unemployed young people who have completed their higher education to acquire employment experience aimed at facilitating the education to job transition.

The immediate goals of the program are as follows:

• Prevention of dequalification of young people;
• Prevention of “brain drain”;
• Provision of opportunities to renew the public administration;
• Provision of opportunities for subsequent employment of some of the young people at permanent jobs;
• Achievement of flexible combination of knowledge and experience corresponding to the requirements of the market economy.
• The target group of the program comprises young people under 29 years without employment experience for the university specialty they have completed who have registered in the Labour Office Directorates.

The employers are public administrations – central government authorities, including their secondary budget units and their territorial divisions within the executive power administration in accordance with article 36 of the Administration Act, the district and municipal administrations.

After the selection in accordance with the criteria approved by the Minister of Labour and Social Policy and an interview with the employer, the undemployed young people who are registered in the Labour Office Directorates are employed under employment contract for a period of 12 monhts. The Program is implemented by the Employment Agency (Агенция по заетостта) throughout the country.

As a result of the implementation of the Youth Guarantee in Bulgaria, nearly 100 000 young people under 25 years of age have started work during the 2015-2019. Bulgaria has legislatively regulated and has gained experience in implementing various measures and actions to increase the chances of employment and future labour market integration, applying these with better quality and wider scope in order to achieve the desired effect of the Youth Guarantee. For the target group of the programs, measures and schemes there is applied set quota for young people up to 25 years of age. In order to implement the Youth Guarantee from the beginning of 2014, programs and measures targeting young people which have proven their effectiveness and for which the interest of the employers and young people is high are implemented.

Contributions to youth employment have the following:

• Program For Training And Employment of Long-Term Unemployed Persons (Програма за обучение и заетост на продължително безработни лица).

The program aims to increase the knowledge and qualification of long-term unemployed persons registered at the Labour Offices by including them in vocational training upon request by an employer. The program is implemented on the territory of the whole country, with priority for regions with unemployment above the national average for the previous year. The program subsidizes the employment of full-time or part-time workers for a period of up to 12 months in the private sector.

• National Program  Activation of Inactive Persons (Активизиране на неактивните лица).

The Employment Agency implements the National Program Activation of Inactive Persons. The main objective of the program is to activate and engage on the labour market inactive people, including discouraged and young people up to 29 years of age (inclusive) who are not in employment and education and are not registered in the Labour Office Directorates, and of unemployed people, by means of individual or group application of tools and services for their attraction and motivation to register in the Labour Office Directorates, and by means of their involvement in training, return to the education system and/or employment. The program further strives to motivate unemployed working-age people who are subject to monthly social assistance, to become employed under municipal programs for community service.

The program is aimed at:

• Social integration of economically inactive working age people and of unemployed people from vulnerable groups on the labour market and mitigating the risk of poverty.
• Supporting the labour and social integration of unemployed persons through the provision of intermediation services, identification of any other services (social, medical, educational, etc.), they need, and by assisting their provision.
• Supporting the organization and provision of community service by unemployed working age persons who receive social assistance, for the purposes of restoration/ acquisition of labour habits and by motivating them to search for a job and gain employment earnings in order to improve the living conditions in the municipalities.

Flexicurity measures focusing on young people 

There are no top-level measures focusing especially on young people.

Reconciliation of private and working life for young people.

There are no specific measures on reconciliation of private and working life for young people.

Funding of schemes/initiatives

Trainings and Employment for Young People project (проект „Обучения и заетост за младите хора“) “) under the Human Resources Development Operational Program provides opportunities for integration of unemployed young people under 29 years of age inclusive, who are registered in the Labour Office Directorates at the Employment Agency, in employment at an employer by providing trainings and subsidy for continuous employment. Project activities are realised on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria since 2016. The project funding is in the amount of BGN 115 854 936 (approximately EUR 59 235 688), including BGN 98 476 695,60 (approximately EUR 50 350 334) EU funding and BGN 17 378 240,40 (approximately EUR 8 885 353) national co-funding.

The project is implemented in two components

Component I

Information and orienteering directly to vacant jobs for individuals from the target group for whom the job does not require to participate in training.

Carrying out trainings for professional qualification and/or key competence 4 “Digital competence” and key competence 2 “Foreign language training”.

Ensuring tutor for young people who are directly employed at vacant jobs for which young people do not need to participate in training – for maximum period of 3 months.

Employment of individuals from the target group at jobs within the scope of single groups of professions in class 2 to 9 of the National Classification of Occupations and Jobs 2011, for a period of up to 12 months.

Component II

Information and orienteering directly to vacant jobs for individuals from the target group for whom the job does not require to participate in training.

Provision of training, including by issue of vouchers for obtaining key competences to unemployed persons with permanent disability.

Ensuring tutor for young people with permanent disability for maximum period of 3 months.

Employment of individuals with permanent disabilities at full-time and part-time jobs (at least 4 hours) within the scope of single groups of professions in class 2 to 9 of the National Classification of Occupations and Jobs 2011, for a period of up to 24 months. Provision of one-off incentives in the amount of six minimum salaries applicable for the country for employers who have kept the job of the disabled employee for 6 months after the period of the subsidy.

Target groups

Component I

Inactive and unemployed persons under the age of 29. As a priority, support is provided to unemployed young people under 29 years of age who are with primary or lower education and are registered as continuously unemployed individuals in an Labour Office for 12 and more months

Component II

Inactive and unemployed persons under the age of 29 with permanent disability. As a priority, individuals with certified disability of 75% and more than 75% are involved. The implementation period of the program is: 2015-2023

Quality assurance

The youth employment measures implemented during the period 2015-2023, which are described in Funding of schemes/initiatives are funded by the Human Resources Development Operational Program

According to Decision No 792 of the Council of Ministers of 17.12.2013 (last amendment 2015) (Решение № 792 на МС от 17.12.2013 г.) on nominating the authorities in charge of the management, control, coordination and audit of the funds for the youth employment initiative are managed, controlled and coordinated by European Funds, International Programs and Projects Directorate General at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy – managing authority of the Human Resources Development Operational Program.

Тhe main mechanisms in place to monitor and ensure the quality of employment schemes and projects fall within the responsibitlities of the authority, which is nominated to control the implementation of the Human Resources Development Operational Program, and namely, the European Funds, International Programs and Projects Directorate General at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy European Funds, International Programs and Projects Directorate General at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy. It performs inspections on the spot with regard to the implementation of the contractual activities in order to verify that:

• funded products and services are actually delivered (for example, subsidized employment, trainings, social services, consultations, etc.) and correspond to the projects approved for funding, the rules of the operation and the applicable legislation;

• representatives of the target groups have actually participated and the result from the interventions is available;

• the conditions for ensuring sustainability of each individual project are met.

In pursuance of their obligation, the Managing Body and the Employment Agency – in its capacity of specific beneficiary, perform scheduled and unscheduled audits of all projects, including interviews with the target groups, in order to verify the achievement of specific objectives and outcomes for the respective priorities of the Operational Program.

This ensures the monitoring and quality assurance of the youth employment measures and schemes implemented in the country.