BFE represents in Bulgaria the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) – a prominent US based organization for training and credentialing professionals in career guidance and mental health, with a global network of experts and practitioners.
The National Board for Certified Counselors, Inc. and Affiliates (NBCC) is a not-for-profit, independent certification organization established in 1982 in the United States. NBCC’s original and primary purposes are to establish and monitor a national certification system, to identify those counselors who have voluntarily sought and obtained certification, and to maintain a register of those counselors. As NBCC has grown, it and its divisions and affiliates have taken on additional responsibilities to advance the counseling profession and enhance mental health worldwide.
Today, there are more than 62,000 National Certified Counselors (NCCs) in more than 40 countries. NCCs have voluntarily met high national standards set by the counseling profession and based on research, including passing an examination.
Mission: NBCC advances counseling as the premier certification body of the profession.
NBCC Bulgaria is recognized as the center for initial and continuing education and support for the career guidance practitioners in Bulgaria.
Since 2005 BFE has trained and certified over 1000 career guidance practitioners under the Global Career Development Facilitator program (one of the most successful NBCC’s program), thus developing capacity for guidance counselling services in more than 600 schools, 10 youth centres, 36 universities and more than 100 private companies and public organizations in Bulgaria.
The curriculum adapted by BFE for training career counsellors has been highly estimated by few major universities which incorporated it into their master programs in guidance counselling. The case was included in the CEDEFOP’s report Professionalising career guidance. Practitioner competences and qualification routes in Europe.