My name is Yoana Zapryanova. I am from Plovdiv, Bulgaria and I am 18 years old. I have always been fascinated by finances and banking. Therefor I had decided from young age that this was the sphere I wanted to prosper in. Which is why I began studying in the National High school of Commerce in my hometown. It was founded in 1910 at the initiative of the Plovdiv Chamber of Commerce and Industry and currently it has more than 1000 students.
I had the chance to choose between many profiles, for example: Accounting, Industry, Business Administration, Customs and Tax Administration, etc. but at the end I chose “Banking” because it appealed to me the most. I also chose it because of the language. I have always been studying English and finding that my speciality was with German language made me love it even more. Another thing that made me chose it was because I don’t like language high schools and would have loved to study a speciality instead of just 1 language.
The banking profile has 2 parts when it comes to subjects. The ones that are mandatory for every student in the country are language studies, science, biology, etc. And those that are only for that specific profile. We start the specific subjects at grade 9 which till 12th grade makes trainees 24 in total. We study few types of accountings (practice with theory), banking, few types of finances, law, statistics, entrepreneurship, economics, business communication, economical informatics. We study: how the National bank is connected to the commercial bank; how to open an account; how to lead the accounting in a firm, bank and the budget; how to make a statistic research; how to read and understand the laws; how to create our own programs which help with our speciality; about foreign investments in Bulgaria, financial analysis of the bank's creditworthiness, non-cash forms of payment used in international trade, value of money over time, financial portfolio, marketing mix, foreign exchange market operations, etc.We study things in dept and from what I talked with my friends who study in universities, we study things with the intention of learning and understanding more than they do in university. Sometimes I even have to explain to them stuff. It amazes me how much more one can learn in a trade high school.
The most interesting subject for me was “Work in a school enterprise” in which we had to create our own bank. We worked like a real bank in the virtual website called buct.org and in April 2019 we had to represent ourselves and our bank in the International School Firm fest 2019. We even won 3rd place in the Best Bank contest which made me very proud.
This year we will have a similar subject but instead of a team making a firm/ bank on their own. I find it good to have those things because they help us develop as people since they bring out our inner motivation and help us work as team.
Another thing I love in our school is the mandatory practice. In 11th grade to graduate we needed to attend mandatory practice in real firms/banks for 2 weeks with 10 topics to write about with our experience in the bank. We, as trainees in the banks, learned how to work with clients, how to manage dealing with co-workers, how to use web banking and fill out documents. I am very excited to have this class this year as well and go to the bank again and learn even more things.
As the last year of high school is approaching the National Professional exam is very close. It will show us how well we have learned about finances and banking for all those years. It would be difficult but I know I can do it.
Speaking about the exam makes me sad because it means time to leave school is near. I would miss my school and especially my teachers. They made learning this hard material easy and understandably. I would really miss them and the school.
by Yoana Zapryanova
Participant in
YE “Save our money”
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