AFP: Bulgaria Adopts Apprenticeships in Scramble for Workers

Vladislav Nikolov, with shy youthful looks and sporting neat work overalls, belongs to a rare breed in Bulgaria: Apprentices.

The combination of vocational education with on-the-job training is long-established practice in countries such as Switzerland, Germany and Austria -- and a key contributing factor to the vitality of their labour markets -- but Bulgaria only began piloting such schemes a few years ago.

But with the fastest-falling population in the world, Bulgaria is increasingly turning to apprenticeship schemes to counter labour shortages that are threatening to become dramatic.

Nikolov is one of three 17-year-olds who have been taken on as an apprentice at Gabinvest, a maker of hunting rifles in Gabrovo, in the north of the country.

For a fast-growing company that is desperately short of skilled labour, the youngsters represent "a real opportunity", said technical director Plamen Petkov.

- 'I'd take them immediately' -

"Our expansion is being hampered by the lack of qualified personnel. If 10 good candidates were to come knocking at my door, I'd take them on immediately," he said.

Nikolov himself says his apprenticeship enables him "to learn more than I do at school."

But he admits that "it's difficult to get up, arrive on time and work the whole day."

He spends two days a week in the factory and the other three at school, where he will complete his secondary education.

Just two schools and five companies took part in a 2015 pilot scheme launched by the Swiss-Bulgarian chamber of commerce.

German and Austrian companies later joined in and now 3,384 young Bulgarians are employed as apprentices at more than 200 companies.

Employer groups are desperate for workers amid a deepening...