EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Directorate-General XXII, Education, Training and Youth
ANNEX II
Tempus   Phare
Joint European Project
Intermediate Report for 1999/2000
The Intermediate Report is to be returned in TWO copies by registered mail
by 1 February 2000 at the latest
(date as per postmark)
One copy to:	One copy to:	
European Commission	European Training Foundation	
Directorate-General XXII	Mr. P. Bedewell	
Education, Training and Youth	Head of Tempus Department	
Mr. G. Massangioli	Viale Settimio Severo, 65	
Head of Unit	I - 10133 TORINO (Italy)	
B-7  8/49		
rue de la Loi, 200		
B - 1049 Bruxelles (Belgium)		
The Intermediate Report has to be signed by the person legally authorised to represent the Contracting Institution.

I, the undersigned, certify that the information given in the present Revised Budget and Activity Plan is correct to the best of my knowledge and is endorsed by all institutions participating in the Joint European Project concerned.

Done at				: Sofia

Date				: Jan. 27, 2000

Name				: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Roumen Nikolov

Institution			: Sofia University “St. Kl. Ochridski”

Function				: Head of Department of Information Technologies

Original signature		: ..............................................................................

Seal of the Contracting Institution	: ..............................................................................

Part I

TEMPUS JOINT EUROPEAN PROJECT	
BUDGET (EURO) 1999/2000	

		1999 - 2000	
		Tempus	Other sources	
				
1	Staff costs			
1.1	Administrative tasks	18 500		
1.2	Academic tasks 	12 700		
				
2	Travel & subsistence			
2.1	Staff and/or trainees			
	•	Total for East-West flows	32 010		
	•	Total for West-East flows	21 945		
	•	Total for East-East flows			
	•	Total for West-West flows			
2.2	Students (only if indicated in the contract)			
	•	Total for East-West flows			
	•	Total for West-East flows			
	•	Total for East-East flows			
				
3	Equipment	24 000	21 000 (G; K) 	
				
4	Printing and publishing	9 800		
				
5	Other costs	2 000	10 000 (G; K) 	
				
6	Overheads	6 286		
				
	TOTAL	127 241	31 000	

Part II			Work plan 1999/2000

For  an overview of the outputs foreseen for 1999/2000 see the table in the next section (Annex II/4) indicating the deadlines for each output (milestones), and the period and location in which the activities are taking place. 
Deviations from the original application
Revisions in the budget for 1999/2000 reflect the reduction of approximately 1/3 of the amount requested and the recommendations made by ETF. The fund allocation proportions from the initial application are preserved when possible. The only changes in the workplan concerning activity 2.3. Re-training of BG academic staff for the new modules/courses and new methodology introduced in the Centre of Excellence are due to temporary health problems of the UT coordinator and the current restructuring of the Bulgarian government partner institutions (MFA, MES) as part of the pre-accession preparation.
The number of people to be trained remains unchanged (231 altogether) to reflect the increased demand for training in the partner institutions as demonstrated by the performed needs analysis. The budget reduction is going to be compensated for by searching for more flexible and cost-effective schemes:
•	exploitation of intellectual property rights of existing courses and adaptation for non-commercial use within the project;
•	course development using predominantly local human resources (university staff available), restricting foreign partners’ participation to quality assurance and consultancy. 
The courses specified in the original application are in the process of more accurate definition after the needs analysis carried out. Two additional courses are included for development under the project program: Economics and the Role of Banks and Specifics of Employment Service. 
Progress made
According to the workplan for 1999/2000 the following activities had already been or are in the process of being performed:
1. Centre of Excellence established
•	Signing the University decision and placing premises at the Centre of Excellence disposal; 
•	Premises at Sofia University provided for the project. Plans for restructuring available space according to project needs (establishment of administrative office, lecture room, computer rooms, meeting room) are now being developed.
2. Purchase of basic teaching and administrative equipment and books
•	Marketing research is being carried out concerning the forthcoming purchase of basic teaching and administrative equipment and books.
3. Development of the necessary organisational and management structure
•	Two general meetings of all the Bulgarian partners and individual meetings of project coordinator and Bulgarian partners' representatives were organised. 
•	Meetings with the partners from University of Twente and GMD were also organised. Further communication and coordination activities are going on mainly via e-mail and telephone. 
•	Communication and coordination activities with the partners from Universite des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg are going on by e-mail and telephone.
•	Establishment of a more flexible organisational and management structure is under way after the recommendations made by ETF. Operational management is delegated to team leaders to ensure higher functionality and flexibility of structure. Some of the teams are already established and staff recruited. Each team integrates domain experts, instructional design experts and web-developers working together on one particular course.
4. Identifying the learner's needs 
Needs analysis of the administrative staff of the partner organisations was performed on the basis of:
1.	Face-to-face meetings with partner institution representatives;
2.	Job descriptions and personal qualifications of the staff involved in the training;
3.	Questionnaire covering: 
•	Positions of people to be trained, major requirements of their job and expected knowledge/skills to be acquired;
•	Working conditions, infrastructure availability, technical parameters of equipment used, software, etc.;
•	Time availability of course participants for seminar and lecture hours, self-study, etc.;
•	Experience level and kind of qualifications of staff, past training type and coverage;
•	Preferred type, subjects and content of future courses.
The performed analysis indicated that most of the course participants are mainly on administrative duties and it will be hard or even impossible to devote much time for attending personally course lectures and seminars. 
Also the current restructuring of the government administration makes it hard for the client organisations to estimate the exact number of people who will need training and can give only averages. The trends, however, are already clear and in view of the pre-accession preparation the demand for training in the government administration structures is accelerating. 
Because of this the original number of people to be trained (231 altogether) is not revised. The difference will be compensated by using the following two opportunities:
•	course development performed locally using lower development rates;
•	a flexible delivery scheme prevailingly distant allowing for less face-to-face training and more simultaneous course participants. 
The data collected indicate that the staff of the client partner institutions has easy access to information technology – most of them having a PC on their desk, some Internet access but mostly just e-mail. All these make the preferred type of course structuring prevailingly distant, e.g. CD- and web-based. 
The computer education is viewed as a prerequisite for most of the other courses. After passing a week of intensive training in the Centre of Excellence on Internet Technologies and Office Automation the trainees will be able to continue in distant mode on their jobs devoting an hour or two a day according to their time and preferences. Still, however, the multimedia features of the equipment are weak with only a few of the computers having a CD-ROM and sound blaster.
5. Course analysis, adaptation and development of module outline
Content analysis and adaptation of the courses and modules from EU partners' MSc programs to the specific BG conditions is under way. 
Analysis of past courses organised in the partner institutions (MFA, MES, IBI, NEA) is being performed.
Proposals and materials have been collected from the project consortium partners for resources to be used in the process of course development.
•	Human Resource Development - Course syllabus and module outline provided by FMI-DIT, with UT support.
•	Economics and Role of the Banks - Course syllabus, module outline and textbook provided by the IBI. Web-based version of the course to be developed.
•	Fundamentals of Educational and Training System Design - textbook and other teaching materials provided by the University of Twente ETDS Master of Science program.
•	Internet Technologies - course materials provided by FMI.
•	Office Automation - course materials for MS Word, MS Excel, MS Power Point provided by MES and FMI.  
•	Bulgaria and Europe - Team formed for the development of course syllabus and module outline. Team consists of members from DES, MFA, FMI.
•	Fundamentals of Public Administration - Team formed for the development of course syllabus and module outline. Team members are from Department of Public Administration, FMI.
•	Fundamentals of European Law - Team formed for the development of course syllabus and module outline. Team members are from DES, BILD, MES.
•	Information Society - Course syllabus and module outline is being developed by DES and FMI.
•	Language courses – flexible in content and instruction strategy for the different target groups specific needs. 
•	Specifics of Employment Services - The NEA staff training program for 2000 was analysed and matched with the modules to be developed under this project. Development of a specialised course for the specifics of employment service is being considered.
Recommendations which have been taken into account
The needs analysis should be more focused; there should be more distinction between the different target groups, the content of the needs and the mode of teaching. Once the focus is defined, the activities should be further defined appropriately.
More information should be further provided on the content of the courses.
After performing a more in-depth needs analysis course content is now being specified as indicated above (Progress made).
The management structure of the project seems rather bureaucratic. The specificity and expertise of each partner should be taken into account and used for the benefit of the project. Efforts should be made to ensure that an effective quality control system is in place considering the large network and wide variety of modules.
Establishment of a more flexible organisational and management structure is under way after the recommendations made by ETF. Operational management is delegated to team leaders to ensure higher functionality and flexibility of structure. Teams integrate domain experts, instructional design experts and web-developers working together on one of the courses. Quality assurance and consultancy is provided by foreign partners. A special Project quality assurance programme is envisaged. Interim and final results from the Project should be evaluated parallel trough: 
a)	the self assessment procedures of the Centre of Excellence;
b)	the assessment of the experts from the EU partner universities;
c)	assessment of the impact of the training on the development of the personnel and renewing the institutional structures of the administrative institutions involved in the Project.
Sustainability of the project after the end date of the project, continuing co-operation amongst partner institutions, use of equipment, human resource development possibilities for trained staff, possibilities for continuing training should be addressed as early as possible.
Sustainability is incorporated in the original project idea in the form of the Human Resource Development and Educational and Training Systems Design courses aiming to create a critical group of adequately trained people. Thus a multiplication of the training effect under this project will be achieved: in the long run the client partner institutions will have their own experts capable of developing tailored courses. 
Human resource development is still a major problem in the government administration. For example, in MES there is still no HRD unit. The training under this project is expected to lead to the establishment of such unit and improvement of the HRD. 
The accent of the project should not be on the establishment of the Centre of Excellence but rather on the preparation and delivery of training courses. 
The Centre of Excellence already exists, having been legally established before the project started; premises are provided by the University of Sofia. Additional equipment is still necessary to ensure efficient project work without getting in the way of the main university activities.
The establishment of the Centre of Excellence is viewed as an important prerequisite for sustainability of the project. 
Considering that the main providers for the Centre of Excellence in Sofia will be the ICT departments, 3 computer laboratories seem rather excessive. A more balanced share of the equipment between SU and UVT is encouraged. Staff costs should respect local rates.
•	The university does not have sufficient resources of computers. There are hardly computers available to meet the needs of the students. The Centre should have own resources in order to perform well
•	Equal distribution of the equipment is impossible: Target groups are concentrated in Sofia: PA, Banks etc.; most of the course development is concentrated in the SU as well with UVT providing ground for dissemination of the project experience.
Experience of the launching phase
Due to temporary health problems of the UT coordinator and the current restructuring of the Bulgarian government partner institutions (MFA, MES) as part of the pre-accession preparation the workplan was slightly modified to allow for more time for activity 2.3.
Despite the budget reduction by 1/3 the needs analysis shows increased demand for training in the client partner institutions under the project framework and because of this the original number of people to be trained (231 altogether) is not revised. The difference will be compensated by using the following two opportunities:
•	course development performed locally using lower development rates;
•	a flexible delivery scheme prevailingly distant allowing for less face-to-face training and more simultaneous course participants. 
Accelarated requirements towards the training equipment in the client institution emerged in the course of discussing the more flexible course delivery strategy and methodology. Analysis shows that multimedia features of the equipment are weak with only a few of the computers having a CD-ROM and sound blaster.

WORKPLAN for 1st project year

	TO DATE	PLANNED FOR REMAINDER OF YEAR	
Outputs/Activities*	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	
1. Centre of Excellence established with its own premises, well equipped, linked in an electronic network.													
1.1 Signing the University Decision and placing premises at the Centre of Excellence disposal.		XX											
1.2 Purchase of basic teaching and administrative equipment and books.			XXXX	XXXX	XXXX								
1.3 Development of the necessary organisational and management structure		XX	XXXX	XXXX									
2. Eight modules transferred, adapted and developed on the base of European expertise and analysis of administrators' needs.						O							
2.1 Identifying the learner's needs - needs analysis of the administrative staff of the partner-organisations.	XX	XXXX	XX										
2.2 Courses' analysis, adaptation and development of the Module's Outline.		XX	XXX=	====	XXXX								
2.3 Re-training of BG academic staff for the new modules/courses and new methodology introduced in the Centre of Excellence.			XXXX	XXXX	====	====							
2.4 Development, translation, adaptation and publishing of teaching materials.				XXXX	XXXX	XXXX							
3. Seven modules carried out with a flexibility of choice and 231 administrators from the partner institutions trained.													
3.1 Forming the students groups.					XX	XXXX		XXXX					
3.2 Electronic network for distance delivery established and implemented.				XXXX	XXXX	XXXX							
3.3 231 Administrators trained through the 7 Modules carried out in the Centre of Excellence.							XXXX	XXXX	XXXX	XXXX			
3.4. Continuing evaluation and on-going improvement of the modules and trainers' skills through on-the job training and assessment.								XXXX	XXXX	XXXX	XXXX	XXXX	
4. Achievements assessed and future activities planned													
4.1 Publishing brochures of the courses/modules.						XXXX							
4.2 Four Project Steering Committee meetings.				X							X		
4.3 Development of unified credits system for all the courses taught in the Centre of Excellence.													
4.4 Implementation of a network for continuing on-the job support for the trained administrators and dissemination of the project's results.										XXXX	XXXX	XXXX	

PAGE FOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF RECEIPT

		Your name:   Prof. Dr. Roumen Nikolov

Full address: 
	Sofia University “St. Kl. Ohridski”
	Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics
	5 James Bouchier Blvd.
	
BG	       -  1164	  Sofia, Bulgaria	
Country code                Postal code                          Town	
 
This page of the form will be returned to you on receipt of your Intermediate Report. Therefore please enter your name and address in the box above.

For internal use only.

We acknowledge receipt of your 1999/2000 Intermediate Report for the 

Joint European Project No.

JEP 14047-99

under the Tempus Phare Programme.

Yours sincerely,

Place:						Date: