Deputy education minister Dr Tanya Pancheva is visiting Switzerland under the DOMINO 2 programme, the ministry said. The aim is to find out how business can take a bigger part in dual education.
The full name of the Bulgarian-Swiss programme is "DOMINO 2 – Dual Education for the Modern Requirements and Needs of Society". It was launched in October 2025, builds on the first project and will run until 2029 with a budget of 5.8m Swiss francs. The education ministry says the focus this time is on business involvement, and the role of employers is the main topic of the visit. The delegation wants to learn why companies take an active part in training future specialists and how roles are shared between the state, firms and schools.
Deputy labour and social policy minister Danail Rusev, programme head Polina Zlatarska and Vasil Radoynovski of the Bulgarian-Swiss Chamber of Commerce are also taking part. The delegation includes Nikola Rangelov, chair of the board of the Bulgarian Association of the Metallurgical Industry, Andreana Premyanova-Yankova, chair of the board of directors of the state-owned Industrial Zones company, and Georgi Parvanov of the Bulgarian Association for People Management.
The visitors toured industry training centres, employer organisations and the GIBB vocational school in Bern, where 7,000 students study in dual education across 70 trades.
At the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training, they learned how vocational education is run and how the state, schools and business work together. At the Schweizerischer Gewerbeverband, an organisation of small and medium-sized businesses, they discussed business's responsibility for what is taught.
The LIBS industry centre is a membership organisation of companies and itself provides the early training of dual-education students, which covers the basic skills of the trade. At the specialised CFPS Le Repuis centre, the visitors were shown a model for including students from vulnerable groups through vocational education. It will be tried out as a pilot in Bulgaria, in the regions of Sliven and Vidin.
The delegation also met the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, represented by ambassador Didier Chassot. Both sides confirmed that their partnership in dual education continues. Bulgaria's ambassador to Switzerland, Svetlan Stoev, and Desislava Chakarova, adviser and head of the political section at the embassy, also attended.
At the launch of the programme, education minister Krasimir Valchev said: "I am convinced that with the DOMINO 2 programme we will motivate more educational institutions, employers and students to take part in dual education."