The EU educational policy considers continuing education and training (CET) as a major priority theme. The target value regarding the involvement of adult participation in education and training, updated in the beginning of 2021, recommends a participation rate of at least 47% over the twelve-month period prior the survey to be achieved by 2025 (European Commission, 2021). Bulgaria is one of the countries with lowest involvement in continuing training and one of the reasons for that is the unwillingness of the private sector to invest in LLL. Given the above, the purpose of this study is to present the patterns regarding firm-provided training in Bulgaria. The outputs are based on a survey conducted in the beginning of 2024 (February-March). The sample includes 280 private non-financial companies operating across the whole country. The survey method is direct standardized interview conducted at work used a questionnaire with 43 questions. By confirming the positive relation between company’s size and training, the study shows that the firm demographics determines to a great extend the lifelong learning activity. The prevalеnce of small businesses which do not have enough time, financial and human resources for implementing proper human resource management practices explains the low involvement in CET. This implies that governments should take their responsibility in supporting the smaller companies in their efforts to invest in staff training.

Authors:
Mariya Neycheva, Burgas Free University, Bulgaria

About the Presenter(s)
Mariya Neycheva is a Professor of Economics. Her recent publications focus on the issues related to human capital, education as factors of economic growth as well as participations in continuing education and training.

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mariya-Neycheva

Additional website of interest
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=vqfFEcQAAAAJ&hl=en

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