„Bulgaria Beyond the facts“: Economical Competitive Power and the Young people in Bulgaria

The United Nations Development Programme – Bulgaria and Gallup International have presented the results from a survey about “Economic Competitiveness and the Young People in Bulgaria” .

The national representative survey aims to study and analyze the attitudes and behavior of the young people in Bulgaria; how the membership of Bulgaria in the European Union starts influencing the current and future occupation, profession, career plans, the educational and qualification prospects for the youth. The survey focuses on the difficulties and the benefits evolving from the changing economical environment, the dynamics in the political attitudes and the personal life strategies.

The survey has carried out during the period September-October 2007 and it is a part of a set of sociological analysis and reports concerning warning topics closely connected with the Bulgaria Accession to the European Union.

The survey is nationally representative for the country (citizens of Republic of Bulgaria aged between 15 and 30) and was conducted by „face-to-face” method in the respondents’ homes. Effectively interviewed were 1000 Bulgarian citizens.

The survey studies mainly common attitudes and life strategies of the young people in Bulgaria:

• Attitudes to EU and our future in it;
• Economical attitudes: can we be competitive?
• Education: what, how and where?
• Emigration;
• Attitudes to politics/ forms of civic activities.

The survey consists of one main and 5 subsections

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 The first subsection is seeking answers to the questions about the attitudes of the Bulgarians from all ages to the membership of Bulgaria in the European Union – hopes, expectations, realities. The survey results unambiguously show that 54 % of the young Bulgarians think that the country is going in the right direction for better future, they also are the most positively disposed ones (even more than the middle class) to their future and the future of their country.

 The second section contains questions about the economic expectations of the young people – can they be competitive within Bulgaria and abroad? The respondents demonstrate ambitions for incomes that are at least twice higher than the current average for the country. They express strong will for financial independence; they prefer to work in the private sector; the higher salary is priority compared to the secured employment. According young people competition does matter, but state protection is highly valued nonetheless

 The third part of the survey analyzes the educational attitudes compared to the labor market’s competitiveness. It is significant that most of the respondents say that they prefer to receive their education in Bulgaria. There is good for ongoing lifelong qualification and acquisition of new skills in a highly competitive environment.

 The fourth section of the survey studies attitudes toward working and living abroad and being competitive in a foreign labor market. This is the age group that has the most realistic idea about “abroad” and what the possibilities there are like; the young Bulgarians have low emigration attitudes, but they express good deal of will to go to work abroad for certain period of time. Among all candidate-emigrants and candidate-guest workers only 20 % have serious plans to go abroad within the next one year.

 The fifth section of the survey deals mainly with the political and civic activity of the youth. In general the survey results show that the young people do not participate actively in the political life of the country, but they are deeply confident that their fate is in their hands.

Main conclusions from the survey:

• The young people want to be competitive, but they actually do not know how!
• They reveal relatively high level of liberal economic stances ;
• They assess the advantages of the quality secondary and higher education and they comprehend that it is directly connected to the increase of their skills and potential to compete within the European Union.

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