1.3.4 CSA in Action: Kuklen Municipality, Bulgaria

Results and follow up for the CSA: The informal network of stakeholders decided to sign the CSA at the end of the training course in order to reinforce the positive results of the actions undertaken at local level and to plan further opportunities and development. The main results achieved by the CSA can be summarised as follows:  Awareness about needs and opportunities from the local territory and citizens.  Tangible synergies between private and public sectors.  Reinforcement of previous co-operation to stimulate inclusive processes and community development.  Motivation to further develop the CSA including a more active participation of the final beneficiaries from the designing phase of the local interventions.

1.3.4 CSA in Action: Kuklen Municipality, Bulgaria

The territory

Kuklen Municipality belongs to the Plovdiv district in Bulgaria. It has a surface of 148 Km2 and a population count of 6431 people. In the territory there are ninetyfive companies, most of which are small and medium sized companies from sewing business, food sector and services. Two of Bulgaria’s largest companies are in the Plovdiv district: in agriculture, the sole collective agent is Rodhope agricultural cooperative with 4300 acres of land. The unemployment rate, in that area, was estimated at 12,38% with youth unemployment sitting at 33,43%. After the needs analysis and mapping of the territory, the partners of the CSA seriously took into consideration the youth unemployment rate as an indicator of exclusion of young people from the labour market. They all acknowledged the need to address the problem of youth unemployment in the Municipality of Kuklen with a specific piloting phase.

The beneficiaries

The CSA partners defined young people6 as the target group for the local piloting phase. The beneficiaries at risk of exclusion, identified as the target group of the piloting phase were:  Young people.  Unemployed.  Belonging to ethnic minorities.  People with disabilities.

6 Young people area those persons aged between 15 and 29 according to the Law for Youth, updated from 20 April 2012

The CSA identified three priority areas in which beneficiaries could develop their employability:  Development of competitive small and medium enterprises.  Tourism development.  Development of an effective and competitive agricultural sector.

CSA partners, having defined the piloting phase, promoted this opportunity at local level. Twenty-four young people demonstrated their interest in joining the CSA in Action. Among the twenty-four, eight of them had ideas for starting their own small business initiatives, the other sixteen were searching for a job opportunity. Among the twenty-four persons, seventeen people aged between 30 and 40 attended the piloting phase.

The piloting phase

Having analysed the needs of the participants and their personal and professional objectives, they CSA partners designed individualised programmes for each person in order to equip them with the necessary competences to be employable and to have access to local labour market, both as an employee and a selfentrepreneur.

The objectives of the individualised plans were as follows:  To make young people aware about the existing opportunities to find a job.  To equip young people with relevant competences such as team-work, leadership and critical thinking.  To support those that wanted to create a new enterprise, providing information and tools to design a business plan.  To support those that were looking for a job, providing information on job vacancies and giving tools for an active search.

The individualised plans contained some common elements as follows:

Learning Areas Ability to plan own learning Technical and professional competences related to the sector of interest

Knowledge of labour market

Knowledge of practices and opportunities in own Region Ability to plan further learning and actions

Activities

Individual interview with a counsellor and elaboration of an individual learning plan

Theory and practical workshops

Meeting with local companies in order to better understand the labour market in the areas of the training course Seminars, meetings with relevant Institutions Individual meetings with counsellors/mentors in order to define the follow up of the training course

The stakeholders and their role in the CSA in action

The CSA was signed by thirteen local stakeholders. The core group was represented by C.E.G.A Foundation & experts, Indi Roma 97 Social Foundation & consultants and Darsik LTD and partners. Kuklen Municipality, Labour Office Directorate Rodopi, Social Assistance Directorate Rodopi, Vocational High School on Agriculture and local companies signed the CSA and agreed various levels of commitment in accordance with their capabilities. The stakeholders who signed and were active in the CSA in Action had the following particular responsibilities:  Indi Roma 97 Social Foundation & consultants had the role of working with the beneficiaries looking for a job and supporting them in their search.  Darsik LTD & experts had the role of working with beneficiaries interested in starting their own business, supporting them to elaborate a business plan.  C.E.G.A Foundation & experts had the role of supporting both the partners and coordinating the local project activities.  Kuklen Municipality provided relevant information about potential beneficiaries indicating their motivation for actively cooperating in the project implementation.  Local Institutions provided all relevant project information to potential beneficiaries, supported the CSA to deliver training and implement the piloting phase.  Vocational School of Agriculture provided information to potential beneficiaries.  Local Community centres had the role of assisting with the dissemination of project information.  Companies committed themselves to support the development of business plans and providing information on vacant jobs.

Results and Follow up

Results and follow up for beneficiaries Among the seventeen participants in the local actions, eleven of them were successfully integrated in the labour market. More specifically:  Two young Roma women started to work in an employment project under the HRDP.  Two young Roma women started to work with the support of a national program: Help in Housing and Employment for disabled people.  One Roma woman was hired by a local company with the support of the First Job Programme.  One Roma woman with disabilities started to work as a cleaner in a local company.  Five people from the Roma community decided to rent Municipal land to start their own business.