In Bulgaria, under the patronage of the Ministry of Education and Science, Vocational education and training directorate, the National Competition “Best Business Idea” for the academic year 2019/2020 was held.
The annual competition usually takes place during the period January – April, but due to the emergency situation caused by the COVID – 19 pandemic, the preliminary qualification phase could be performed only in the beginning of June. European Center for Quality, partner in the ENNE project, participated in the evaluation commission assessing the students’ ideas.
The main goals of the competition are:
- Strengthening the motivation of the students from vocational high schools in economics around the country for full comprehension of the learning material, based on the interdisciplinary approach and entrepreneurship skills.
- Providing students the opportunity for creative expression of the acquired knowledge, skills and competences in the field of entrepreneurship.
- Stimulating the innovative thinking, creativity and the teamwork of the students.
- Encouraging the development of entrepreneurial culture and entrepreneurial thinking and behavior.
- Encouraging the attitude for continuous and individual studying by stimulating their competitive spirit.
- Encouraging the cooperation between vocational high schools, the business and higher educational establishments.
Participants in the competition can be students from XI and XII grades of the country vocational high schools in economics. The competition goes through three rounds. The first round is being held internally at the school and it is divided into two stages – anonymous, during which students present their ideas through written form, and public, where students present and defend their business ideas verbally. Only the students ranked on first and second place at each school advance to the next, pre–qualification round.
This stage is again anonymous, the students are sending their business ideas through mail, and their personal data is sealed in a separate non-transparent envelope. Usually more than 60 ideas reach this stage. The members of the commission, that evaluates the ideas that have reached preliminary qualification, comprises: representatives of the Institute of Entrepreneurship of the University of the National and World Economy, business representatives and teachers of economic subjects from vocational high schools of economics. Experts from the European Center for Quality Ltd. often participate as business representatives in the evaluation commission. Only the 24 participants who receive the highest average scores from the evaluators reached the final national round of the competition.
During the final stage the students will be divided into 6 teams of 4 participants and will work on a challenge, drawn at random from several possible topics. This year the final round will take place in Petrich city, and the competition will be hosted by the Vocational School of Economics and Tourism “Prof. Dr. Asen Zlatarov”.
In 2019, the idea of making and selling eco utensils such as forks, knifes, boxes for food and bottles, made of resin became the winner in the Bulgarian national students competition “Best Business Idea”. It was held in Sofia and participants were 24 of the best students-entrepreneurs from all over the country. We look forward to learn what interesting ideas the finalists will work on this year.
