2. Methods in Use
2.1 Bulgaria
The normative framework for the establishment and functioning of the national system of
career guidance of students and adults was regulated with the Vocational Education and
Training Act in 1999 and with the Law on Protection against Unemployment and Promotion
of Employability in 1998. The services supporting career guidance in Bulgaria are being
developed in accordance with the state policy on employability promotion.
According to the VET act, career guidance provides students, the unemployed, as well as
other people, with information and advice on choosing a profession and career develop-
ment and covers professions and specialties on the List of Professions for vocational edu-
cation and training.
The main users of the services supporting career guidance and offering career consulting
belong to the following target groups:
⇒ Elementary, primary, secondary and vocational school students up to the point
of their entering universities or getting a job;
⇒ Particular target group students:
● With special educational needs – deviant students or those dropping out of
school;
● Gifted in the field of art, music and sports;
● With special educational needs – those with chronic diseases, physical and
sensory defects, and mentally retarded;
⇒ Children of school age who are not included;
⇒ Young people and adults who are:
● Over 16 to 29 year-old, who dropped out of school without acquiring an
educational degree or professional qualification;
● University students;
● Employed people needing pre-qualification or extension of their qualifications;
● Temporarily or permanently unemployed;
● Discharged from prison;
● Officers and military men exempted from the army;