For the second consecutive year, the NSI conducted a training course for young statisticians from six countries within the framework of the Bulgarian Development Assistance Programme of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria. The training was entirely funded by the Bulgarian Development Assistance Programme. This year, 24 young experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine participated.
The training programme was developed and implemented jointly by the National Statistical Institute and the Centre for Statistical Studies at the University of National and World Economy (UNWE) - Sofia.
For the first three days, the young statisticians had the opportunity to be acquainted with the theory of statistical surveys, presented by Assoc. Prof. Venelin Boshnakov and Prof. Valentin Goev, PhD from UNWE at the auditorium of UNWE. Associate Professor Alexander Naydenov from the same university acquainted trainees with the theory of sample surveys.
During the remaining six days, leading NSI’s experts presented practical problems in the field of statistical surveys to the trainees at the NSI Training Centre in Slivek, Lovech region. Ms. Gergana Maeva, Ms. Svetoslava Filipovich, Mr. Rasim Rustem, Ms. Jana Gueron, Ms. Elena Bakalova, Mr. Valentin Chavdarov, Ms. Galya Stateva, Mr. Kostadin Georgiev and Dr. Bogdan Bogdanov shared their experience in the field of short-term and annual business statistics, income and living conditions statistics, labour statistics, macroeconomic statistics and the use of alternative data sources (so-called Big Data).
The variety of topics and the great academic background of the lecturers created the necessary environment for a successful training and active participation of the young statisticians. At the end of the seminar, a round table was held on various topics of interest to young statisticians and the trainees were examined with a final test involving questions from all topics discussed during the course. The trainees presented their answers in the form of interesting presentations and they have done very well with the additional "questions for champions".
The course was concluded with a ceremony led by Mr. Sergey Tsvetarsky, President of the NSI, who personally awarded certificates to all participants, signed by him and by Prof. Stati Statev, PhD, Rector of the University of National and World Economy.
All participants expressed their gratitude for the cordial welcome and interesting lectures as well as for the opportunity to be acquainted with Bulgaria during their visits to Lovech and its surrounding cities, Troyan, Veliko Tarnovo and the capital - Sofia. They highly appreciated their opportunity to enrich their knowledge, to discover the beauty of Bulgarian nature and important moments of Bulgarian history, and last but not least - to be acquainted with colleagues from different statistical offices.
During the course, all trainees took part in a photo contest with the pictures taken during the training, in which they presented their impressions from Bulgaria in an interesting way.
