Applying technologies in vocational education in Bulgaria

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) give many benefits to every learning stage - from primary school to university and even life-long learning. Vocational education uses the base of the previous stages and aims at preparing students for their future jobs. The present paper focuses on vocational education in Bulgarian high secondary schools and universities (colleges). A short overview of the most used WEB-based educational information systems is presented. The paper also describes an extensive survey among teachers and students on the use of ICT in Bulgarian schools. The profile of responded vocational teachers is briefly presented. Here are presented and analysed their opinions about the available conditions and obstacles for using ICT in the teaching process. The usefulness and the frequency of using the most popular e-resources in the vocational subjects are compared. The paper presents a portfolio optimization approach for the usage of different e-resources. Next, the authors give an overview of the application of new technologies in higher education in Bulgaria. The paper provides information about specific educational systems, created for their own needs of the Universities, according to the specifics of the disciplines.