Since last month the Vocational high school for clothing in Pazardzhik has been conducting classes for young people, who have dropped out of school but who want to go back to school and continue their education. These are 100 young people from Pazardzhik and the municipality (up to 29 years old), who have been identified and inquired and who have stated that they want to take part in the initiative. The initiative is part of the project “Portal – support for professional realization”. The Association “Training and Service Centre” is a leading organization under the project and the Vocational secondary school for clothing in Pazardzhik is a partner. The aim of the project is to reintegrate highschool drop-outs and people, who have not graduated 8^th grade, from the territory of Pazardzhik Municipality into the different forms of education of the Vocational high school for clothing.

The young people first went through a Motivational programme, conducted by a specialist psychologist. Since last month they have been attending classes on the general subjects. An individual plan, educational programme, and a schedule have been made for every one of them. The aim of the classes is to make up for any lack of knowledge from the school syllabus. The students are united into small groups and in this way every one of them has the opportunity to attend more classes on the subjects, for which they have to make up for a lack of knowledge or for not well acquired knowledge. There is at the same time a programme for studying Bulgarian made for students, whose native language is not Bulgarian.

The reintegration of drop-outs will be conducted simultaneously with the application of mechanisms for prevention from a second dropping-out. The drop-outs have to motivate to enroll in a daily, extramural, or individual education. The project will look for a stable mechanism for cooperation with the drop-outs’ parents as a factor for the drop-outs’ turning back to school and finishing their education.