PROFESIONALNA GIMNAZIA PO STROITELSTVO ARHITEKTURA I GEODEZIA PENYO PENEV

The Vocational School of Civil Engineering, Architecture and Geodesy (PGSAG)”Penyo Penev” – Ruse was established in 1948 as a school for construction personnel. Today, more than 70 years later, the school continues to develop and uphold its traditions, constantly striving to respond most adequately to the needs of the labor market. In the school year 2020/21 at our school there are 414 students in 17 classes. There are 59 employees and 43 of them are teaching staff.

Our highly qualified teaching staff builds in the students affinity for the valuable and a sense of meaning. Acquired practical and theoretical professional competence, enhanced foreign language training and rich general education enable the graduates of PGSAG “Penyo Penev” to more easily integrate into society and be more competitive in the labor market. PGSAG “Penyo Penev” is an authoritative vocational school, with an image in Bulgaria and in Europe. Our school offers successful, sustainable and innovative curricula in various professional fields, providing quality secondary VET. We combine national traditions with the world ones for the development of individuality and creative talents of each student and we train as a capable member of the global society for social and professional realization in it. In this regard, our mission is to put students in the focus of the learning process in providing quality VET: According to the needs of the individual and society To achieve competitiveness and readiness for the challenges of the world economy Developing the individuality and creative talents of each student as capable of life and professional realization.

To achieve our strategic goals for quality education at European level, we focus on: Acquisition of competencies and skills for understanding processes, trends and their interrelations Stimulating the creative activity of students to generate ideas and encourage their creative realization Formation of tolerance and respect for the ethnic, national, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of every citizen Respect for the rights of disadvantaged people. Other specific objectives of ours are:

Development of new curricula and updating of the existing ones together with the employers and of innovative curricula together with partners – innovative schools from the country and abroad;
Increasing the institutional and international capacity of the high school through active cooperation with European partners and institutions in the field of education;
Professional development and successful career development of the administrative and teaching staff to create increased capacity through participation in various forms of mobility, training, job shadowing, etc. The school has a professional skills development plan for the staff. Promoting the environmental sustainability and responsibility of the participants in the project proposals. As a member of the Bulgarian Construction Chamber we participate in the development of training programs in the following areas: Preparing programs for qualification and retraining of workers, specialists and managers in the construction industry Monitoring and contributing to the introduction of new technologies and materials
Supporting and encouraging entrepreneurial initiatives The high school also offers training courses for employees to acquire a professional qualification and courses for the acquisition of key competences, such as foreign language, soft skills and digital competence.

What are the activities and experience of the organisation in the areas relevant for this project? What are the skills and/or expertise of key persons involved in this project?

PGSAG is the only one in Rousse District that has been approved for Erasmus + accreditation №2020-1-BG01-KA120-VET-095021 for the period 2021-2027 in the Vocational Education and Training Sector, Key Activity 1 “Educational Mobility for Citizens”, Erasmus + Program. Since 2013, we are beneficiaries of various educational exchange programs. We have participated in the project BG05M2OP001-2.004-0004 “Developing students’ abilities and increasing their motivation to learn through activities that develop specific knowledge, skills and competencies (Your class)”. The aim of the project is the development of students’ learning skills, competencies, creative and sports abilities in thematic areas that are beyond those included in compulsory school preparation. We have prepared 15 clubs with specially developed curriculum and exercises for the aims of the program, including the development of social and emotional skills of the students. With our current project we aim to upgrade what we have developed in this project and to do innovative curriculum for the development of the social and emotional skills of the students in secondary school age with focus on Happiness. We have another relevant experience in building up extracurricular activities in our school – in the project BG05M2ОP001-2.012-0001“Education for Tomorrow” – Training of teachers for teaching knowledge and skills in digital literacy – key digital skills – basic and advanced, new technologies, products and programs, media literacy, online content and introduction, etc. to increase the digital competence of students. We are currently participating in a project BG05M2О P001-2.011-0001 “Support for success”.We have developed activities to increase the motivation to learn by developing
specific knowledge, skills and competencies, including the development of social and emotional skills of the students – 5 groups of students for overcoming learning difficulties and 1 group for activities of interest have been formed at the high school, total 54 students participated in the activities. The school is actively working to increase the motivation of students to participate in the educational process, according to their interests and needs. We have implemented the project BG051PO001-4.2.05 “Making the school attractive for young people”. Through this project we have increased the motivation of students to participate in the educational process. Kamelia Petkova Dencheva is the principal of the school and teacher in Mathematics. She will be the Project manager as she has extensive experience in developing and
managing international projects under the programs “Leonardo da Vinci” and “Erasmus +”. She has developed and managed 15 international projects for the period from 2007 to 2021 and participated in joint partnership projects with University of Ruse- DE/07/LLP-LdV/TOI/147089-„LCCTV”, “Certification of language competencies by profession” and “Energy efficiency training for construction professionals”. Kamelia Kancheva Angelova has a MA of Accounting and Control and her position in the school is Chief Accountant. She will be the Financial officer of the project. Nedyalka Borisova Kutincheva has a Bachelor degree for a teacher of Mathematics and Computer science and a Master degree of Economy. Her position in the school is Head of Information and Communication Technologies. She will be assigned as a project expert for the development of the project results. Her experience will contribute to the interdisciplinary adaptation of the content, so the Happiness program will be applicable for all subjects in the secondary school age. Valentina Nikolova Ivanova – Ilieva has a Bachelor degree of English Philology. She was the main initiator of the idea for the development of the special curriculum with focus on Happiness and is expert in the proposed methodologies for the project. She will be also responsible for the development of the project results, mainly the content of the training.