A young Bulgarian named Nevse Molalieva (right) chats with friends before they head to a training course at a sewing factory in Ribnovo, a village in Bulgaria - the European Union's poorest country. Eurostat shows the country's youth unemployment rate is among the highest in the EU, but a German businessman named Bertram Rollman has found a way to give some young people in Ribnovo better job prospects - a dual education system popular in his native Germany.
. RIBNOVO, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Young women stand together on a street in Ribnovo. For youths like them, employment prospects can be tough: although official unemployment in Bulgaria is in line with the EU average, industry officials say the real rate is closer to 18 percent, and "the real unemployment among young people under 29 years of age is close to 40 percent," according to Dimitar Brankov, a deputy chairman of Bulgaria's leading business association BIA.
Fighting unemployment and poverty are priorities for most political parties running in the country's elections on May 12, after mass protests against widespread corruption and low living standards toppled the ruling centre-right government in February.
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. Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Youths attend a training course at a sewing factory in Gotse Delchev, close to Ribnovo.
. Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
German businessman Bertram Rollman talks to an employee at his sewing factory, which provides training for some 40 young people.
. Gotse Delchev, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Nevse Molalieva (right) works at a sewing machine during her course in the factory.
. RIBNOVO, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Young people gather on a street in Ribnovo.
. RIBNOVO, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
Molalieva chats with her cousin in a cafe.
. RIBNOVO, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
She talks to friends in the street.
. RIBNOVO, Bulgaria. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov
A general view shows the village of Ribnovo, which lies some 190km (118 miles) south of the Bulgarian capital Sofia.