Bulgaria will train over 6,000 people this year using budget money, and one in six of them will prepare for jobs in construction or related fields. Labour and social policy deputy minister Danail Rusev said this at a round table on the future of the construction industry, the labour ministry's press office reported.
Rusev said investing in skills is one of the best ways to match businesses with available workers and avoid staff shortages. Construction now employs over 220,000 people - nearly 9% of everyone in work in Bulgaria. Employment Agency surveys show "builder" remains one of the jobs employers look for most.
The labour shortage is an old problem, the deputy minister added. He said the ministry is working on it from several angles. One is to get people who are neither working nor studying moving again through training and qualification courses. The other two are to bring back Bulgarians with experience abroad and open more doors for workers from outside the EU.
About 440 million euros from the Human Resources Development programme goes to support workers and employers, Rusev said. This pays for training for unemployed people and those outside the job market, for subsidised jobs, and for upskilling people who already have work.
Rusev also unveiled a new pilot scheme called "Specific Skills for the Workforce", with a budget of over 13 million euros. Under it, employers themselves decide what training their staff need, he explained. This lets businesses shape the training content directly, so workers get trained for the actual jobs on offer.
The ministry is also getting different agencies to work together better, Rusev added. A register of economically inactive people is due to start soon, the ministry said. Local teams will then work with each person individually, aiming to bring them back into the job market.
Job vacancies posted by employers rose 14% in August compared with July, the Employment Agency reported a few days ago. Registered unemployment stood at 5.47% at the end of August, with 155,007 people registered as unemployed across Bulgaria.