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Marginalised students aged 15-18 from Bulgaria are continuing their pre-employment preparation via individual and group sessions with their teachers and pedagogical counsellor as well as by exploring the 4 levels of the serious game produced by the project. In total 60 students so far participated from 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov”.

The team of AMPAT was invited to deliver special training for future teachers (recent students at Pedagogical and Social studies programmes) at the Catholic University of Paraguay. The training event was held on 4th and 5th of April and was delivered by Prof. PhD Pilar Gutiez Cuevas and Prof. PhD Castellar Lopez Guinea from AMPAT. They have presented the serious educational game as well as the Pre-employment toolkit. Exploitation agreement was signed between AMPAT and the organisers.

The project was presented as best practice example during International conference organised by National agency of Republic of North Macedonia. The conference was held in the period 5-7.03.2025 in Ohrid. The aim of the event was to bring together career counselors from across the educational spectrum — from primary education to universities — who are actively working on issues of career guidance, inclusion and support of vulnerable groups in the educational process. The discussions focused on new trends in career counseling, the specifics of approaches for different professional and social groups, good practices and ways for sustainable inclusion of vulnerable groups.

Special focus was done on the presentation of the Pre-employment supportive handbook and the serious educational game.

The piloting and pre-employment validation sessions through the serious game are progressing very successfully. Students from Roma community as well as those with mild disabilities and special educational needs are motivated and engaged in the game scenarios. Listen above video testimonial of one of them as well as photos from different sessions.

The pilot implementation phase is progressing well in Bulgaria. This is evdient from the teachers’ workshop, which was held at 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” in Sofia, Bulgaria on 27 February 2025. The workshop was opened by the Principal of 94 SU, Mrs. Lidiya Yarnova and Mr. Andrean Lazarov from Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team, who was the moderator of the workshop.

The main aim of the workshop was to share feedback from the pilot career guidance sessions with students with special needs (students from marginalised communities and those with learning difficulties). For the time being 60 students are involved in 6 groups aged between 14 and 18. During each of the sessions, the students are receiving career guidance tips by the teachers and the pedagogical counsellor as well as they are validating their pre-employment skills via the serious educationa game of the project.

The piloting phase will continue in the next months, where each of the students will complete the four stages of the game. The participants also discussed the Star outcome star model of Kirckpatrick, which is used to record the student progress in soft and transversal skills. Follow us for more information in the next months.

On 10-11 February 2025, the third transnational partners meeting was held in Istanbul, Turkiye. The meeting was hosted by World Innovative Sustainable Solutions – Istanbul, Turkiye. The meeting was dedicated to the finalisation of the beta version of the serious game “I am ready to work” and to the planning of the pilot testing phase.

The partners reviewed and reported also all realised activities in all work packages including planning the next project steps.

On 22 and 23 May 2024, in Sankt Pölten, Austria, the 33rd Annual conference by EURASHE on the theme: “Stronger together: Promoting transnational cooperation” took place. Mr. Andrean Lazarov, the CEO of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team was among the key panelists together with Mrs. Sophia Eriksson Waterschoot – the General Director for Youth, Education and Erasmus+ at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture as well as representatives of Šiauliai State UAS, Thomas More UAS, Burgenland UAS, under the moderation of Mr. Michal Karpišek – member of the European Alliance E³UDRES².

Mr. Andrean Lazarov with Mrs. Sophia Eriksson Waterschoot – the General Director for Youth, Education and Erasmus+ at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture

During his speech, Mr. Lazarov presented the advantages of the Erasmus+ programme towards transnational cooperation and gave particular examples with different EU projects, where BIST is involved.

Mr. Andrean Lazarov with Mr. Hannes Raffaseder – President of EURASHE

On 21st and 22nd March 2024, at 94 SU “Dimiter Strashimirov” the transnational partners meeting of the project was held.  The meeting was opened by the host partner – Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva – Principal of the 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia and by the project coordinator Mr. Melchor Gomez from Autonomous university of Madrid, Spain. Special music performance was given by students of 94 SU.

Main scope of the meeting was the review of the new improved version of the EMPLOGAME serious game “I am ready to work”. The partners discussed the outcomes from the focus groups feedback in Bulgaria, Spain and Turkiye and agreed on next amendments. They have discussed the new scenarios for the next game levels.

The partners discussed the progress of the five work packages by their leaders. Overall the project is in line with the work programme and is producing valuable learning results.

At the end of the meeting, the partners received certificates for participation and the project action plan was updated.

On 20 March, 2024 (Wednesday) in the Great Hall “prof. Asen Zlatarov” of the Federation of Scientific and Technical Unions (FNTS) in the city of Sofia, the final event of the project was held. During the event, the EMPLOGAME project was disseminated in the presentations of Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva and Mrs. Penka Nikolova (from 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia), Mr. Andrean Lazarov (from Bulgarian Inclusive Support Team” Sofia) and Mrs. Figen Sekin (from WINSS – World Innovative Sustainable Solutions, Istanbul, Turkiye). More than 50 people took part in the event, including principals of vocational schools, teachers, pedagogical counsellors, students (including participants in the pilot phase of the project), as well as representatives of the Union of Bulgarian teachers and academics.

The event was also attended by Mr. Dervis Celik – from Esenyurt” Regional Education Directorate in Istanbul, Turkey. He emphasized the importance of the project, as well as offered new opportunities for cooperation with Bulgarian partners.

The EMPLOGAME project was disseminated as part of the VISAGE4JOBS final multiplier event, which was held on 15 February 2024 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The two Bulgarian partners – Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team and 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” presented the first version of two major project results – the Pre-employment toolkit for marginalised students and the draft level of the EMPLOGAME serious digital game “I am ready to work”. 40 representatives of the project’s target groups took part in it, including teachers, psychologists, pedagogical advisors, career consultants, representatives of vocational training centers.

The event was opened by Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva – director of 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia, who is also the coordinator of the project. She welcomed all the guests and gave an introduction about the achievements of the project. Mr. Yordan Krasev – a representative of the Union of Bulgarian Teachers, also took part in the opening, who expressed gratitude for the successful implementation of the project and emphasized the role of the union in the dissemination of the results created within the framework of the project activities.

Special part of the presentation was dedicated to the short-term impact of the project by Mrs. Penka Nikolova from 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” – Sofia. She emphasised on the impact to teachers and students.

During the last part of the event, Mrs. Latinka Kovacheva initiated a discussion on the possibilities of using and distributing the project results among other schools, including 93 SU “Alexander Teodorov-Balan”, 7. SU “Sveti Sedmochiselnitsi”, 15 SU “Adam Mickiewicz”, 102. “Panayot Volov” Primary School, “Stefan Noikov” Foundation, 106. “Grigoriy Tsamblak” High School, 148. “Prof. Dr. L. Miletich” High School, Nayden Gerov Secondary School, ChSU “Prof. Nikolay Rainov”.