Good Wood training seminar in Sofia
The third international seminar of the Good Wood project was held in virtual mode.
The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce, partner of the initiative organized the event. It was attended by 60 people, thus confirming the considerable interest in the initiative.
The President of the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tsvetan Simeonov said that the project partners have created an excellent cooperation and a working network of organizations, thanks to which the objectives set at its beginning have been met. These include: strengthening social dialogue, reorganizing production and management in the wood and wood processing sectors, both at national and EU level.
Analisa Guidotti, Director of Communications and International Relations at the Italian Confederation of Small and Medium-sized Industrial Enterprises, stressed that the circular economy within the scope of the project is key to the success of SMEs and to the employment of workers in the sector.
The theme of the seminar - "The role of training in creating employment in the EU" was addressed by experts from Bulgaria, Italy and Belgium. Issues related to the following topics were discussed: labour market, employment, training, innovative approaches, training in the wood and wood processing sector, etc.
Asen Angelov, an expert from Bulgaria presented the main trends in the labour market in the wood and woodworking sector in the country, which are strongly influenced by the changes at European level. According to him, these sectors have reached their employment limit and the potential to hire more workers is very small. They are characterized by predominant human power, some mechanization, but weak automation. Angelov noted that increasing employment can be expected in subsectors such as processing of secondary materials, recycling and processing of waste from logging, etc.
The main conclusions that have been drawn about the future of the timber sectors are:
There will be an emphasis on sustainable and eco-design of wooden products.
More and more re-use will be applied to the products and materials from which they are made.
More careful selection of raw materials is necessary.
There is a shift of raw materials and materials with more sustainable ones.
New recruitment skills are coming in.
The gap and the distance between available jobs and those that are lost continues.
Common policies are needed to cover the needs of the wood and woodworking sectors with qualified employees with new skills.
Ivaylo Tsochev, head of the Bulgarian company Wero Waste, presented various creative ways to reduce waste.
Genoveva Hristova, head of the Bulgarian furniture cluster, also took part in the event by presenting some aspects of the Bulgarian furniture sector, as well as the importance of training, the upskilling of its employees and the opportunities for hiring. She stressed that the cluster aims to present the sector with a new vision that is attractive to young people – to work and identify with it.
The Sofia webinar was a useful moment of comparison between the participants who were able to benefit from the exchange of best practices, in addition to the more didactic-formative part on the agenda.
Some of the results of the research done within the project were anticipated. Expect more information about the Good Wood project research on 9th December 2020 when the final conference of the project is going to take place. More information about the event is available on the project website: https://www.goodwoodproject.eu/en/
