The document discusses the issue of young people who are "NEET" (Not in Employment, Education or Training) in Europe, focusing on Bulgaria. It notes that in 2011, over 7 million young Europeans aged 15-24 and over 6 million aged 25-29 were excluded from the labor market and education. In Bulgaria, the NEET rate is high, especially among women, those with only primary/lower education, from poorer families or ethnic minorities. The document outlines some government policies to reengage youth but notes Bulgaria has challenges like low salaries, lack of connection between education and jobs, and brain drain due to emigration. It argues Bulgaria's youth need to gain practical skills and work experience abroad to escape limited opportunities at

1. THE LOST GENERATION
Teodora Koleva

2. THE FUTURE OF EUROPE DEPENDS UPON THE 94
MILLION EUROPEANS AGED BETWEEN 15 AND 29.
NEET – ‘not in employment, education
or training” vulnerable
subgroups
Sick Disabled
engaged in
young
other
carers
activity
low levels
of immigration
education background
Young
Family
people with background
disability

3. ACCORDING TO EUROSTAT, IN 2011, 7.5 MILLION YOUNG PEOPLE AGED 15–24 AND AN
ADDITIONAL 6.5 MILLION YOUNG PEOPLE AGED 25–29 WERE EXCLUDED FROM THE
LABOUR MARKET AND EDUCATION IN EUROPE.
Reforms undertaken in some countries:
NEET rates in 2011
29% apprenticeship
20%
16% various programs
/"I can do better“/
Below
7% 8%
temporary and traineeship
part-time work
on-the-job training
with schooling

4. tHe SiZe oF tHe ‘NEET proBlem’ in Bulgaria
Bulgarian labour market has lower flexibility than the EU labour market as a whole.
Young people have always been considered a group at the margin of the Bulgarian labour market.
Crucial factors unemployment or inactivity among young people (15–24) in Bulgaria :
Crisis, Level
Negative
changes of Education Lack of
Social status Risky
19.5% Unemploymet amplifies the adequate
96.97% Higher by Gender economic
education Higher education risk of being education,
subgroup of sectors: qualification
145.83% 23.6%Secondary unemployed:
Secondary
Bulgarian women Agriculture, and skills
22.5% Upper not in Parents who are
secondary unemployed, manufacturing, 65.3% with
129.59% Upper employment-
specialized inactive, with low construction and primary and
secondary 83 % of which do education, wholesale lower education
specialized 24.9% Upper not want to work illiterate, without and retail trade 44.6 % with
167.74% Upper secondary for personal skills
secondary general /70 % (57,000) lower secondary
reasons, such
general live in poverty of the youth education
44.6% Lower as raising
secondary ethnic groups employment
76.28% lower children or doing 85% Drop-outs
reduction/
secondary 65.3% Primary unpaid family Roma of school
83.43% Primary or lower work
or lower

5. STATUS ZER0
YOUNG PEOPLE APPEARED TO ‘count For notHing and Were
going noWHere’
Being a young person is not an advantage but a disadvantage
risky behaviour
NEET Profile in bg: political marginalisation
disaffection
isolation
Female consequences
Inactive for the
Without work experience individual
High skilled
unstable mental and
Discouraged workers physical health social exclusion
long-term scarring effects
on their labour market performance

6. GOVERNMENTS HAVE BEEN VERY ACTIVE IN PROMOTING POLICIES FOR RE-
ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE LABOUR MARKET AND THE
EDUCATION SYSTEM.
Supporting school-to-work transitions
Improving service delivery and offering youth guarantees
Preventing early school-leaving
Alternative learning environments
Providing information, guidance and counselling
and innovative teaching methods
Work-experience opportunities and skills development
Career guidance and educational assistance
/‘learn-work jobs’:
Financial incentives and parental engagement www.stagemarkt.nl/
Increasing the scope of compulsory education Entrepreneurship
support
Reintegrating early school-leavers
Apprenticeships and
Facilitating mobility and financial support vocational training
‘apprenticeship countries’ (Austria and
Germany) managed to keep their
youth unemployment down
Employer incentives and subsidies
Training courses
Addressing more complex personalissues
Internships

7. "ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE"
Higher education in Bulgaria is producing unemployed people.
Since 1989, the nation has lived through a transition period, which has encompassed thorough
changes of the economy, from command to market-oriented and the polity from totalitarianism
to pluralist democracy. These changes affected education in a variety of ways.
freeing of the education system from ideological constraints
decentralization
restoration of private schools
acute economic crisis
no connection between the universities and the labour market
Approximately a million of Bulgarians have emigrated since the fall of communism in 1989, nearly 85 percent
of them under age 30
“Money can really buy your happiness”.
Therefore “the saddest place
in the world, relative to its income
per person, is Bulgaria.”

8. NO EXCUSES
"People say you can only improve an education system over 25 years - but look at Poland
and Singapore, which have improved in a very short time, we've seen dramatic changes."
Youngsters in Bulgaria should enthusiastically borrow ideas from other
countries, to learn from each other’s policy approaches and ACT.
But…Bulgarians are not motivated. Compared to the salaries in the rest of the EU,
salaries in Bulgaria are relatively lower.
SENIOR PROGRAMMERJOB DESCRIPTION: Country Total Yearly Cost
(Euro)
This professional carries out program
Low High
development, including evaluation of Salary Salary
program prerequisites, development of new
US 52,000 80,000
GENERAL SALARY LEVELS IN BULGARIA programs, testing and
France 43,000 55,000
documentation of programs
DESCRIPTION COST
etc. He/she also coordinates Germany 47,000 57,000
Average salary for Bulgaria 250 Euros work between programmers United 44,000 59,000
and junior programmers. This Kingdom
Minimal salary by law 75 Euros person has at least a high Ireland 35,000 52,000
Total contributions paid by school degree, university Netherlan 38,000 47,000
diploma in Computer Science, ds
the employer, including
Around 35% over the base or supplementary courses in Italy 42,000 52,000
health care, unemployment
salary computer information systems. Japan 59,000 83,000
and social security
This person has at least 5 BULGA 15,000 35,000
contributions. years relevant experience. RIA

9. "POVERTY IS NO LONGER deStiny”
“You can see this at the level of economies, such as South Korea, Singapore."
Mr Schleicher declares: “Anyone can create an education system where a few at the
top succeed, the real challenge is to push through the entire cohort.
In China, this means using the best teachers in the toughest schools.”
Ivy WangFormer UK university student: “There are jobs everywhere in China, she
says, but the wages are "not satisfying".
She was offered a salary of between $500 and $1,000 per month and half of that
would be spent on renting a single room.
"Chinese employers know exactly who they want - someone who will do as they
are told but not for much money," Ms Wang says.
"I work for a Swiss company now.
"Working for a foreign company means I can explain what I have done and what I
have achieved, whereas with a Chinese company I have to be really quiet.
"China wants to broaden its strategy and have people
who speak English or have a foreign education background, but
at the same time they really want to control those people easily," she says.

10. “tHe World iS Big and SalVation lurKS
around tHe corner”
What Bulgaria has to offer to young people:
 Labour market, which is not flexible
 Education with no practical training
 The lowest income per person in EU
 A sad Future
What to do to escape from this miserable
perspective:
 Be more flexible /gain practical experience
thanks to apprenticeships and vocational
training offered by Governments/
 Accumulate work experience in Bulgaria and
abroad
 Be able to work in multinational enterprises