On 12 December 2023, the Ministry of Education and Science in Bulgaria organised the a forum “Education for Tomorrow” with a focus on digital education. The event was opened by the Minister of Education in Bulgaria – prof. PhD Galin Tsokov. The set of the conference was to present good practices for effective use of digital technologies, tools and content to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Participants had the opportunity to get acquainted with inspiring examples of this, as digital technologies are successfully applied in the educational sphere. Mrs. Penka Nikolova – Project manager from the 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” presented the project concept and distributed project flyers.

The national seminar was organised by the National agency of Erasmus+ in Bulgaria and the Bulgarian National VET team. It was focused on students and their teachers from vocational high schools in the region within the framework of the “European Year of Skills – 2023”.

The consortium was represented by Mrs. Penka Nikolova from 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” and Mr. Andrean Lazarov (moderator of the event and CEO of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team) who demonstrated tips and good practices in creating the professional resume (through the Europass tools) and motivation letter for a successful career. They conducted practical sessions based on EMPLOGAME training toolkit. In the framework of the workshop, Mrs. Nikolova consulted teachers about common mistakes and advice in career development and preparation for the labor market, as well as provided guidelines for overcoming them with a view to easier access to the labor market in Bulgaria.

The project, which is coordinated by UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID, Spain and partnered by the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team and ASOCIACIÓN MADRILEÑA DE PROFESIONALES DE LA ATENCIÓN TEMPRANA (AMPAT), Madrid, Spain was presented during the XVII International congress of the organisations working in the field of education, which was held in the period 08-10 November 2023 in Oviedo, Spain.

In the dedicated panel called: “Inclusive education in the 21st century: recent practices and solutions for teachers and students with special needs” was chaired by prof. Pilat Gutiez Cuevas and prof. Crisalida Rodriguez Serna from AMPAT with the participation of  Andrean Lazarov from Bulgarian Inclusion Support team. Prof. Pilar Gutiez Cuevas  presented the project concept and the first project results with regards to the game based development and its impact on students from disadvantaged communities.

The congress was organised by the University of Oviedo and included more than 200 participants from Europe and Latin America (academicians, business representatives, teachers, lecturers, NGO representatives, policy makers). During the first congress day, the team of Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team presented the key outcomes of the project, especially appreciated by the giant name in the didactics of Spain – prof. Antonio Medina Rivilla from UNED | Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia and the key organiser prof. Emilio Álvarez Arregui – President of UNESCO Spain . Possibilities for exploitation of the key project results in Spain and in Latin America were discussed.

Dedicated article about the project, its concept and results was also published with ISBN: 978-84-18482-96-0

More information at: https://www.cioie2023.org/es/programa.php 

The partners met on 7th November 2023 in Madrid, Spain to discuss and improve the development of the serious game “I am ready to work”. During the meeting, the partners from UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE MADRID, Spain (project coordinator), ASOCIACIÓN MADRILEÑA DE PROFESIONALES DE LA ATENCIÓN TEMPRANA, Madrid, Spain,  94 High School “Dimitar Strashimirov”, Sofia, Bulgaria, World Innovative Sustainable Solutions, Istanbul, Turkeye and Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team, Sofia, Bulgaria, improved the scenarios as well as developed additional parts of the technical specification of the game avatars and functionalities. The new improved version is expected to be delivered in the beginning of December 2023.

Thanks to the kind invitation of the UARD – Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team was invited as keynote speaker at the INVEST WINTER SCHOOL 2023 – “AN INTRODUCTION TO NATURE-INCLUSIVE AGRICULTURE”, which was held in the period 08-15 October 2023 in Heerenveen and Leeuwarden in The Netherlands. The topic was “The inclusive urban agriculture as an approach towards social entrepreneurship”. Students from bachelor and master degrees from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Greece and Finland took part in the school. Major point of interest for them was the existing policies and good practices into social entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. The pre-employment training material, developed under the EMPLOGAME project was presented, where the opportunities for social entrepreneurship are dully explained.

On 05 September 2023, a meeting with young teachers was organised at the University of Plovdiv “Paisii Hilendarski”. Mrs. Nevena Apostolova from the team of 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” Sofia presented the project concept and the draft version of the project deliverables meant to contribute to further validate pre-employment skills and to foster digital competence of low skilled and marginalized students to foster better transition to the labour market. The teachers provided feedback and suggestions for modifications, which will be reported to the project consortium and will be taken into account.

The team of the 94 SU “Dimitar Strashimirov” under the chair of the Principal and project coordinator Mrs. Kovacheva and Mrs. Nevena Apostolova discussed with the teachers about the recent version of the scenarios for the production of the serious game. The teachers contributed with suggestions for further improvement and were happy that are involved in this very important initiative for their students with special needs. During the meeting, the next steps of the project development was also discussed.

The CEO of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team – Mr. Andrean Lazarov was invited to participate together in a Breakout session about the INVEST Fellow programme during the 32nd Annual EURASHE conference. The event took place on 8-9 June 2023 and was hosted by the University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest (UPB). During the event series discussions were held about the inclusive Higher education together with the new EURASHE President, Mr. Hannes Raffaseder, CEO of the St. Pölten University of Applied Science and the Rector of UPB Prof. Mihnea Costoiu. Both of them expressed interest towards the project and it was agreed to invite them for one of the project multiplier events.

During presentation of the project session:

with the new EURASHE President, Mr. Hannes Raffaseder, CEO of the St. Pölten University of Applied Science:

with the Rector of UPB Prof. Mihnea Costoiu:

Erasmus University Rotterdam (a key partner of the Bulgarian Inclusion Support Team) has been working on the fundamental topics of inclusion, diversity, equity and access for more than seven years. Their dedicated and institutionalized IDEA Center now consists of more than 20 specialists that develop and execute our institutional and integral approach on inclusion, diversity, equity and access. The IDEA Center has taken on a pioneering role, nationally and in Europe helping initiate IDEA-structures at universities, disseminating our knowledge and expertise.

During the week, various national and international speakers – including Prof. Lina Gálvez Muñoz (European Parliament), Alfred Herrera (University of California, Los Angeles), Prof. Eveline Crone (Erasmus University Rotterdam – EUR), Fanny Passeport (Education Development Officer at Erasmus X, EUR) & Dr. Dirk Deichmann (Associate Professor, EUR) and our CEO Mr. Andrean Lazarov – together with academicians, researchers, PhD students and disability organisation representing participants shared practical insights and knowledge on topics such as (academic) outreach, student engagement, inclusive education & Universal Design for Learning, inclusive HR, inclusive communication and monitoring & research.

During the panel workshop “Integrating Universal Design for Learning into your course” we have presented the recent development in the field of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is an approach that allows instructors to proactively design their course content and pedagogical strategies to anticipate a wide range of needs. Rather than seeing students as ‘average’, they are considered as ‘variable’. By acknowledging and welcoming diversity, instructors adopt a pluralistic approach that honors learning differences. When applying UDL, the instructor provides multiple ways of engagement, representation, and action & expression. Concrete examples from EUR applications (and reflections) in a ‘Design Thinking’ course at RSM (in fall 2022) and contributions from the Bulgarian inclusion support team recent and past development were presented. The concept and expected results of the recent EMPLOGAME project were disseminated to the audience.

More information and detailed programme is available here: https://www.eur.nl/en/research/information-form-idea-international-knowledge-week/idea-international-knowledge-week-wednesday

Our team member was invited to participate as key speaker during the plenary sessions at the European conference “Transversal Skills for Work and Life: Strengthening Guidance and Validation” which was held between 18-19 April 2023 in Paris, France.

The main aim of the conference was to build bridges between research, policy and practice for guidance and validation of transversal competences in Europe. Both in work settings and in daily life, there is a growing need for individuals to develop high-level competences to address complex challenges. Transversal competences set the foundation for personal development, resilience, the ability to communicate and work constructively with others, problem-solving, and the ability to manage one’s learning and career. Yet transversal competences are not always valued or made visible in guidance and validation processes for disadvantaged learners.

The ongoing TRANSVAL-EU project — co-financed by Erasmus+ KA3 Policy Reform – Policy Experiments coordinated by OeAD, Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalization (Austrian National Agency of Erasmus+ programme) – one of the largest policy experimentations in Europe — aimed to bridge this gap in guidance and assessment in validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL). The TRANSVAL-EU research conference  provided opportunities for researchers to share and discuss state-of-the-art research in the field of validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL) of transversal skills, including in conference panels, workshops, and a networking reception.