The Bulgarian government has approved an action plan which introduces a new range of professional qualification options for school students and adds a list of "protected professions".

The plan is part of the so-called National Lifelong Learning Strategy for 2014-2020, and the next set of measures is aimed at the swift introduction of a dual education system, with a special focus on opportunities to obtain a professional degree available to school students and individuals aged 16 or more, the cabinet has decided at its Wednesday meeting.

A new mechanism will be set up to determine the number of students admitted to universities depending on the labor market's needs.

Bulgaria's education system has increasignly been criticized over what some experts describe as a lack of real correlation between the curricula and the structure of the system and the contemporary labor market.