Focus group discussions in Bulgaria

15 March 2019 News 956 Views
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Three Focus Group Discussions were held in Bulgaria in February and March – 1 in Dobrich and 2 in Varna organized by the project Coordinator – International College.
The purpose of the seminars was in open discussion with the participants to explore the specific needs of tourism and hospitality businesses and to define their requirements towards the professionals working in the culinary arts field. As a result from the events, were formulated concrete suggestions were formulated regarding the specific knowledge, skills and competences that the modern chef should posses in order to meet the expectations of the employers and to keep up with the latest trends and innovations in gastronomy.

All interested representatives of: professional and branch organizations of the employees in the catering and catering sector, VET providers, local and national authorities and regulatory bodies involved in the development, accreditation and control of professional qualifications, well-established professionals in the branch and other stakeholders were invited to participate in the discussions.
In general the attendees shared their opinion that the current VET offers in the field of culinary arts do not deliver to the labour market the professionals needed to the business. They are still gaps between the level of education and/or training that comes out from the education system and the real-life level of preparation (in terms of knowledge, skills and competences) of the employees in the restaurant business. And this inadequacy refers to both technical and soft (transversal) skills. WBL could be one effective way out of this situation, but it’s still not fully developed in Bulgaria. Big issue for the country is the fact that in the field of culinary and gastronomy the only type and level of education or training is for cook, respectively baker-confectioner, and it refers to a relatively low level of qualification (EQF 3). The rest of the training to become a more advanced professional people are supposed to do by their own, by not guided self-learning, working and gaining experience in the industry, not able to up grate their knowledge and skills in  kind of training scheme. It actually works when there is a passion for it, but it takes a lot of time and efforts to learn form the mistakes. In this regard the major group of suggestions was unified around the need of totally new qualification answering the needs of highly qualified staff in the kitchen (not just for cook but for chef), shortening all this long process of learning on the job and giving to the learners organizational, managerial, communicational and other relevant skills needed.
As a output from the discussions also development trends in tourism & hospitality, food service and gastronomy at national level were identified and discussed to be considered in the joint qualification development.