Database of labour market practices
This database gathers practices in the field of employment submitted by European countries for the purposes of mutual learning. These practices have proven to be successful in the country concerned, according to its national administration. The European Commission does not have a position on the policies or measures mentioned in the database.
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Original Title: | Национална система за оценка на компетенциите MyCompetence |
Country: | Bulgaria |
Responsible body: | Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP) |
Name(s) of other organisations involved (partners / sub-contractors): | Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA), Bulgarian Public Employment Service (Public Employment Agency, PEA), Ministry of Education and Science (MES), National Agency for VET (NAVET) |
Start Year of implementation: | 2009 |
End Year of implementation: | Ongoing |
EU policy relevance: | The MyCompetence online platform contributes to the implementation of labour market policies and priorities from the New Skills Agenda for Europe, the Council recommendation on Upskilling Pathways for adults (2016), and for the provision of better opportunities for those with low levels of skills, knowledge and competencies (Country specific recommendation, June 2019 (1)). The practice is in line with Guideline 6 of the European Employment Strategy – Enhancing labour supply and improving access to employment, skills and competences. |
National labour market context: | The Bulgarian economy stabilised after the economic crisis in 2008 and is now in an advanced phase of expansion and experiencing gradual growth. The GDP increased by 3.5% during 2018 (2). In 2018 the economic activity rate of individuals in the age group 15-64 years old was at 71.1%, while the employment rate was at 67.7%. The employed work mainly in the services sector (61.5%), in industry (30.2%) and the agricultural sector (30.2%) (3). The unemployment rate for individuals aged 17-74 was at 5.2% in December 2018, which is slightly below the EU-28 average (6.6%). According to the Bulgarian PES, the unemployment rate dropped by one percentage point compared to 2017 (4).
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Policy area: | Active labour market policies, Education and training systems, Labour market participation, Skills supply, productivity and lifelong learning |
Specific policy or labour market problem being addressed: | The Bulgarian job vacancy rate has increased, and employers face difficulties in finding candidates to fill vacancies. Applicants are over- or underqualified or do not hold the right skills and competences for the job. On the one hand, the rate of individuals with secondary and tertiary education is growing, while there is a decline in the working age population. Furthermore, due to the challenges of the future of work, workers and jobseekers are constantly required to acquire new skills or update their existing knowledge. In the past six years the percentage of employers that highlighted difficulties with filling vacancies has increased respectively by 34% (construction), 25% (manufacturing), 20.5% (retail) and 19.2% (services). Skills mismatches are both vertical (overqualification (5)), and horizontal. In 2018 23.6% of the Bulgarians aged 20-64 years old with tertiary education were overqualified for their occupation. The sectors worst affected are manufacturing (36.6%), construction (25%), wholesale (36.1%) and transport (36%) (6). In the same year, horizontal mismatch (7) was 26.7% for individuals aged 15-34 with ISCED level 3-8 and 29% for age range 25-34 and ISCED level 5-8. In the last group, horizontal mismatch affected mostly graduates in the area of ‘humanities, languages and art’ (51%), ‘engineering’ (47.9%) and ‘science, mathematics and computing’ (35.6%). MyCompetence online platform encompasses a number of tools to make jobseekers’ and workers’ skills more transparent and visible, such as sector competence models for 25 industrial economic sectors, job description and assessment tools. Online training is available to fill skills gaps (1). It seeks to support and increase labour market participation. It provides information about skills and competences needed for the successful performance of job positions, thus contributes to better matching demand and labour supply. With opportunities for assessment and training to fill skills gaps, it can contribute to reduce the number of inactive/unemployed persons, to bridge the transition from education to employment, and to support employed people in further career development. MyCompetence provides information for forecasting skills and competences needs in the sectors covered and to elaborate curricula and education standards more relevant to job requirements.
(5) Overqualified workers are those individuals who hold a tertiary education certificate but work in occupations where tertiary education level is not needed. See more on Methodological Note
(6) See https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/experimental-statistics/skills (7) Horizontal mismatch refers to those individuals that are working outside their field of education. See more on Methodological Note |
Aims and objectives of the policy or measure: |
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Main activities / actions underpinning the policy or measure: | MyCompetence delivers the following services on the online platform (https://mycompetence.bg/):
MyCompetence is principally addressed to workers and jobseekers as well as other labour market stakeholders (8). Users access a personal profile linked to Europass. This allows users to generate a Europass CV from the information included in the personal profile.
(8) Other users of MyCompetence platform include the Bulgarian PES, employers, HR managers, competence assessors, education and training institutions, recruitment agencies and training providers. |
Geographical scope of policy or measure: | National |
Target groups: | Entrepreneurs and start-ups, Large enterprises (250 employees or more), Long-term unemployed (more than 12 months), People not in education, employment or training (NEETs), Older workers and unemployed (aged 50 to 64 years), Small and medium-sized enterprises (1 - 249 employees), Young people (aged 16 to 25 years) |
Outputs and outcomes of the policy or measure: | Outputs
Outcomes
(9) ISO 90001 is an international standard that highlights the requirement for quality management systems. See https://asq.org/quality-resources/iso-9001 |
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