School-to-Work Transitions in Bulgaria

“Social disparities and regional differences in school-to-work transitions in Bulgaria” is a bi-national research project that includes lead experts from the University of Basel (Switzerland) and the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia (Bulgaria).

The transformation of the Bulgarian labour market from state socialism to market capitalism has had a strong impact on the school-to-work transition of young adults. Young people’s passages from education to employment have become uncertain. Today, many graduates risk not gaining ground in the labour market and facing social exclusion in Bulgaria. In particular, little is known how regional labour and educational opportunities impact ethnic and gender disparities in school-to-work transitions.

The research project aims at better understanding

● school-to-work transition in contemporary Bulgaria

● the role of social inequalities in those transitions

● and the mechanisms behind educational and employment (un)success.

We developed and implemented a nationally representative school-leaver survey of 2100 Bulgarians aged 15-34. The questionnaire included over 170 questions providing detailed information on the respondents’ educational background and their employment situation. With the analyses of the survey data and additional datasets we seek to describe and explain young people’s passages from education to employment in Bulgaria today.

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To access the Bulgarian School Leaver Survey data please visit the FORS website:

https://forsbase.unil.ch/project/study-public-overview/14679/0/

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Recent Publications:

Boyadjieva, P. and Ilieva-Trichkova, P. (2018) 'Horizontal differentiation matters: Moderating influence of the type of upper secondary education on students' transitions'. European Education, 1-19.

Heiniger, M., and Imdorf, Ch. (2018) 'The role of vocational education in the transmission of gender segregation from education to employment: Switzerland and Bulgaria compared'. Journal for Labour Market Research, 52(1), 15. (full text available here)

Imdorf, Ch., Bieri, F., and Heiniger, M. (2018) 'Gender segregation in education and employment. The role of educational systems in Bulgaria and Switzerland'. In Boyadjieva, P., Kanoushev, M. and M. J. Ivanov, eds., Inequalities and Social (Dis)Integration: In Search of Togetherness, Iztok-Zapad Press: Sofia, Bulgaria, pp. 331-345. (full text available here)

Stoilova, R. and Dimitrova, E. (2017) 'Emigration from the Perspective of School to Work Transition in Bulgaria'. Czech Sociological Review 53(6): 903–933, https://doi.org/10.13060/00380288.2017.53.6.380

Bieri, F., Imdorf, Ch., Stoilova, R., and P. Boyadjieva. (2016) 'The Bulgarian Educational System and Gender Segregation in the Labour Market'. European Societies 18(2): 158-179. (full text available here)

Ilieva-Trichkova, P., Stoilova, R., and P. Boyadjieva (2016). ‘Regional Gender Differences in Vocational Education in Bulgaria’. In Imdorf, Ch., Hegna K., and Reisel L. (Eds.) Comparative Social Research. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. (full text available here)

Stoilova, R. and Nyagolov, L. (2016) 'Socio-professional Differences of School-to-Work Transitions'. Sociological Problems (ISSN 0324-1572), Special Issue 48/2016, 80-100.

Stoilova, R. and Dimitrova, E. (2015) 'Емиграцията в перспективатанатърсенетонапърваработа в България', Emigration in the Perspective of the Search for a First Job in Bulgaria (in Bulgarian), Nasselenie, BAS, Issue 4, p. 91-113.

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The project is co-financed by a grant from Switzerland through the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged European Union.