Participants were 68 people, including 46 students of Professional High School of Tourism and Light Industry and the Southwest University – Blagoevgrad. 32 students out of 46 were at the age of 18-29. The established good contacts between the CSCD, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Agriculture (IFSZ) and the local government in Blagoevgrad made it possible to hold a serious training seminar "The Green Deal, the Just Transition and the Agriculture Sector - Cooperation vs Confrontation".
The event was opened by the Regional Governor Mrs. Maria Dimova. The fact that the Deputy Regional Governor Hristo Angelov, as well as the Deputy Mayor for Education and Business Development Ms. Boryana Shalyavska also took part in the importance of the forum speaks for itself.
In the morning panel lectures were given by 7 representatives of Southwestern University (SWU), Associate Professor Patarchanova, N. Dimitrova from the Department of Ecology of the Municipality of Blagoevgrad, Maria Yankulova from the Labor Bureau; Yulia Koyundzhiyska - Regional Association "Agriculturalists"; from the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions Silvia Stoyanova presented the project "My first workplace", and Natalia Andreeva - the website Season@Work for mobile workers; Martin Nedev from the American University spoke about "Food Waste".
After the provided lunch, useful examples of regional importance were discussed by: Ognyan Kitov, Regional Directorate of the State Agricultural Fund - Blagoevgrad; Agriculture, food and sustainability - Marin Mavrodiev, Maria Rupova and Assoc. Dr. Stavrova - SWU; Prof. Dr. Ivan Yanchev - "Ecology and Animal Husbandry", Kostinbrod Institute of Animal Husbandry; Prof. Dr. Ivan Manolov - GOODFOOD-Sustainable educational practices from Agrarian University Plovdiv /via ZUUM Platform/; Assoc. Dr. Nikolay Markov – Intelligent Animal Husbandry, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Agriculture, Troyan /via ZUUM Platform/; Pašovi microfarm.
Desislava Taseva and Danail Angelov - from the Youth Parliament of Blagoevgrad introduced the participants to the activities of the School of Ecology, which they organized.
The Coordinator of RAISE Youth project St. Hadjimitova presented the results of the work in the region. The Aeroponic greenhouse, the AI chatbot for Pernik, the gamified tourist route in the village of Zelenigrad, the crowdsourcing platform https://start-bg.eu/ were impressive. She stressed that all of them remain in use by the young people even after the project is over! She provided the young people with information - an invitation to sign up for the last training, which is organized on January 27 under the project - „Personal Branding“ and handed out leaflets with information about the gamified tourist route.