Dual Education and Professional Realization

This article analyzes the attitudes towards dual education (“cooperative education” or “work-integrated education”) of three types of social stakeholders – educational institutions in the field of higher education, business organizations and local government. The analysis uses the outcome of online questionnaire conducted in the framework of the European project EDU-LAB: New Danubian governance in labour market relevance of higher education”. On the basis of the collected information we confirm the necessity of introducing dual education in the field of higher education in Bulgaria as a way to improve the quality of teaching and learning process and outcome, well as to increase professional chances of young people to start and have successful professional career. The study and analysis not only confirm the positive attitudes of the interviewed representatives of all three social groups towards the dual form of education, but also gave evidence of their specific actions, demonstrating proactive behavior towards practical implementation of these positive attitudes. The results of the study also confirm the importance of projects such as EDU-LAB that create links between higher educational institutions, business organizations and local authorities, which result in a strengthened institutional capacity and intensified inter-institutional dialogue.