19.06.2023

ONLY 8% OF THE EMPLOYED IN OUR COUNTRY HAVE ABOVE AVERAGE DIGITAL SKILLS

Only 8% of the employed in our country have above average digital skills and only 30% have basic digital skills. And the implementation of high technologies in medium and small enterprises reaches 25 percent or half of the average share for the European Union.

A conference of the Bulgarian Industrial Chamber is looking for solutions to these problems, with the participation of employers, trade unionists, representatives of the Ministry of Social Affairs and non-governmental organizations.

The labor market needs an unprecedented change of skills and competence in the workplace, from the Bulgarian Industrial Chamber says.

At the same time, a study by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences shows that most of the employed would not participate in training if it did not lead to increased wages.

And the lower the position, the less likely they are to participate in digital skills training. This leads to the danger of digital marginalization of the population, warned the Deputy Minister of Social Affairs.

"We are talking about relegation, exclusion from the socio-economic life of a large part of the population. We have a rather serious financial resource. I would say unprecedented, which the state has never had before in terms of training for adults, in particular digital skills - over Bulgaria has invested 1.6 billion euros from all funds in the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience".

The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is implementing an investment of BGN 380 million for the digital training of 500,000 persons by the end of 2026, and 200,000 of them will be trained by the middle of next year.