PRESENTATION
The Institute for Social and Trade Union Research, Education and Training /ISTURET/ is an independent non-government organization for research, education and training. It is an ancestor of the Institute for Social and Trade Union Research /established in 1972 as part of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria/ and the Workers’ Education and Training College/established in 2003/.
MISSION
Our mission is to provide high quality products tailored to the needs of working people in all sectors. Through cutting edge training and education programs along with research papers and in-depth studies, the Institute is a trustworthy partner of the trade union movement in Bulgaria.
OUR WORK PLAN
We have a flexible organisation structure ready to implement its research and training programme. The programme is adopted in accordance with the needs of working people and aims to touch upon the latest developments of the socio-economic context. However we are able to respond to ad hoc activities sought by trade unions, social partners, tripartite bodies, research institutions and other national and international organisations.
TEAM
We are highly qualified experts with proven experience and expertise in various fields. Team members hold university degrees in Economics, Sociology, Political sciences, Philology, Education. Some of us have PhD degrees.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE
We have both research and training expertise. The analysis we produce relates to remuneration level by sectors, the relation between minimum wage and living wage, the labour market development, industrial relations on national and international level. We also design and facilitate tailored training that meets the real needs of all employees and build the capacity of the trade union movement as a whole. Our team transposes successfully research results into study curricula and thus gives high quality education and training.
RESEARCH
The research activities cover a great variety of topics and aim to develop multidisciplinary papers. Our analysis cover:
- The national Living wage rate and its relation to the wages;
- Industrial relations, social dialogue, collective bargaining;
- Development of social partners organisations;
- Labour market policies and working conditions;
- Social policy, poverty and inequalities;
- Economy performance indicators.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
We offer Trade Union Training, Vocational Education and Training and Adult Training, including Workplace Training. We provide VET curricula and methodologies, Key competences Training, Training of Trainers, Career Guidance and Counselling, European and National project Management programs. We have our own Quality Management System for training courses. Part of our training methods has been developed together with international institutions such as the European Trade Union Institute, the International Training Center of the ILO in Turin, and other partner organizations.
Our trainings are underpinned by the following principles:
- Quality education is a basic human right;
- raining must be flexible to be accessible to all (by organizing face-to-face, online, blended and hybrid courses);
- Quality training must be sustainable and applicable in different contexts.
For the last 5 years our staff members trained more than 10 000 people on topics related to labour legislation; collective bargaining; OSH; foreign language skills; digital skills.
PARTNERSHIP & NETWORKS
We implement various projects in co-operation with external organizations. We work with experts from CITUB, Confederation of Labour “Podkrepa”, representative employers’ organisations, tripartite partnership bodies and relevant government institutions.
We are proud to be partners of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) in a number of project-based activities. As our employees are members of the Social and Economic Council of Bulgaria and the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, we are often engaged in drafting main strategic and policy documents for CITUB and also in drafting positions, opinions and analyses for the Economic and Social Council of the Republic of Bulgaria.
We are member of the:
- Trade union-related Research Institutes network (TURI)
- European Social Observatory (OSE)
- Collective bargaining, employee information and consultation network of CITUB
- National Trainign Center for Information and consultation.