On September 11, the third course of the National Program “Governance Skills” for Class 2024 ended. For four days, the forty trainees met with politicians, experts and university professors to learn from them and discuss with them key national policies and possible solutions.
The course was opened by Denitsa Sacheva, Chairperson of the Committee on Labor and Social Policy in the 50th National Assembly and Deputy Chairperson of the GERB-UDF parliamentary group. Through concrete examples and experience from her work as a Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Denitsa Sacheva showed the difficulty of decision-making by the representatives of the executive power. The political science lecturer at Sofia University, Prof. Boris Popivanov, explained to the trainees how the political system functions, focusing in detail on the peculiarities of civil society, local and national government. Plamen Tanev, a judge at the Administrative Court – Haskovo and a graduate of the Bulgarian School of Politics, spoke to the trainees about the specifics and work of the judicial system in Bulgaria. On the topic of the national budget as a tool for prioritizing public policy, Venko Sabrutev, member of the Committee on Budget and Finance in the 50th National Assembly and representative of the “We continue the change” political party and Prof. Rumen Gechev, member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, lecturer at UNWE and MP in nine previous parliaments had a healthy clash of viewpoints. The topic of energy was also present in the third course of the program. What is energy, what are its features in Bulgaria and what is characteristic for the energy market in our country, shared Yavor Kuyumdzhiev, energy expert and former deputy minister of economy and energy. “Cyber risks on the road: Bulgaria 2030” was a topic presented by the cyber security expert Yasen Tanev. After his presentation and the discussion afterwards, the course participants came to the conclusion that the path is not difficult if you are not alone and you are prepared. The forty trainees were also interested in the way in which Prof. Ludmil Georgiev developed the topic of public administration and generational disparities. There was traditionally great interest in the lecture about the successful participation in television formats provided by the journalist Boyko Vasilev. After that, the trainees prepared for a debate on the topic “For or against the changes made to the Law on Preschool and School Education”. In the hall, they simulated a tv debate on the broadcast “Panorama”, where each representative of the four groups had to defend with arguments the position of the party or organization he/she represented.
The penultimate, third, course of the National Program for Class 2024 ended with a lecture and an exercise for a successful political campaign. Guest speaker on the topic was Professor Tatiana Burudzhieva, political scientist and lecturer at Sofia University.