As little as 30% of Bulgaria's working population hold jobs matching their education, competencies and skills, according to an inquiry of the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) among 1500 companies.

An equal percentage of the country's total work force lack the education or competencies required for their job.

The inquiry was carried out as part of an EU-funded project for creating a system of workplace competencies, Sega daily reported Thursday.

According to the results of BIA's study, 38% of the workers are overqualified for the jobs they hold.

"The trouble is that there is no plan on how to use these extra qualifications and skills of the people and develop them ", said Tomcho Tomov, head of the national Competence Assessment Center at BIA.

A total of 36.4% of the companies surveyed have functioning competence estimation models, while 17% of them are about to develop such schemes.

A scant 5.7% of the firms plan to introduce competence estimation models in the one or two years to come.

The project envisages the establishment of competence standards for 400-plus key occupations in 20 sectors of the industry.

Work is already underway on 7 sectors, including machine building, wood processing, he food industry, tourism, electronics, electrical appliances and metallurgy.

BIA has said it also plans to develop an online internship portal for university graduates.