From today, October 1-st, 2021, Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association started the implementation of the project BG05M9OP001-1.128-0004 “Development of digital skills”. The project is funded by the Operational Program “Human Resources Development 2014 – 2021”, under procedure BG05M9OP001-1.128 – Development of digital skills – Component 2.

The Digital Skills Development project aims to transpose current EC policies to improve and develop digital skills in the context of the European Digital Strategy. It fully meets the objectives and requirements of the Council Recommendation of 22.5.2018. on key competences for lifelong learning and the objectives of the Action Plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights for Adult Learning, aiming to upgrade at European level the European Framework for Citizens’ Digital Competences 2.0.

The main goal of the project is to overcome the imbalances in the field of digital skills and knowledge, to bring them in line with the needs of business and thus accelerate digitalization. The actual activities of the project will start with a study to identify the needs for digital skills of the workforce in key professions identified for the pilot sectors, followed by testing of current skills through specially developed tools for assessing digital competencies and preparing this basis for analysis. the imbalances and the state and needs of digital skills at three levels for each identified profession.

Digital skills are those needed to use digital devices, communication applications and networks to access and manage information, but on the other hand, these skills are already mandatory in the era of Industry 4.0 and the increasing and rapid penetration of information technology in all business sectors require increasingly advanced digital skills related to specific business processes. The BICA project is aimed at identifying these skills, as it envisages the implementation of a total of nine main activities aimed at developing, testing and validating unified profiles for digital skills in key professions / positions, sectoral qualifications frameworks and training programs for digital development. skills in 13 pilot sectors of key importance for the Bulgarian economy, which are: Crop and animal husbandry; Production and processing of meat and meat products; Manufacture of textiles and textile products; Manufacture of other knitted and crocheted apparel; Leather processing and shoe production; Manufacture of detergents; Manufacture of computer and communication equipment, electronic and optical products; Manufacture of machinery and equipment; Air Transport; Publishing activity; Employment and provision of labor; Artistic and creative activity and Repair of computer equipment.

The implementation of the project will be based on the achieved results under Component 1 of the operation “Developed digital skills”, which is implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy. Within the project BICA has set to develop at least 65 unified profiles for digital skills, a total of 13 packages of test training programs for the development of digital skills, at least 4 models are social cooperation. All achieved results will be tested and tested in a real work environment, and to achieve them BICA will partner with the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions, the Confederation of Labor “Support”, MLSP and the National Agency for Vocational Education and Training.

The project is a pilot and the results achieved are expected to be the basis for the implementation of activities under the new Program “Human Resources Development” 2021-2027 aimed at national development of digital competencies. After the completion of the project all results will be the property of MLSP.

The project has a implementation period of 20 months and the approved budget amounts to BGN 2,052,482.74, of which BGN 1,744,610.33 is co-financed by the European Social Fund and BGN 307,872.41 is national funding.