A DELEGATION from Plymouth’s Tellus Education Group has visited one of Bulgaria’s top maths academies in a bid to share best practice and build business links.

The team from Plymouth travelled to Bulgaria’s second city Plovdiv as part of an EU programme to study vocational education, training courses, and business relations.

They attended a two-day seminar organised by the Model High School Of Mathematical Academician Kiril Popov, which has been working with Mutley-based Tellus for a year.

Gergana Ivanova Petrova, the academy’s deputy principal and co-ordinator, said: “It was a successful conference looking at what we have done over the past year and looking at new partnerships with the Tellus Education Group.”

Ania Wieczorek, Tellus’ director of sales for EU programmes, was on the trip, the second fact-finding mission Tellus has undertaken in the past 18 months.

“We went to transfer good practice,” she said. “We gave a presentation about future co-operation; they want to send teachers and students to programmes in the UK.”

She said nine teachers are now due to travel from Plovdiv to Plymouth to take a close look at vocational training techniques.

There are also likely to be visits from students too, and Ms Wieczorek is planning to visit Bulgaria again next month.

“I’m looking forward to going back,” she said.

Kevin Kelway, director of Dorcas Media, has worked closely with Tellus and took part in the Bulgaria trip. He said: “I was invited to give a talk about media dissemination in European projects, and the importance of effective PR on partner working on EU programmes.

“It was a great opportunity to share my work with Tellus and other partners I’m working with across the EU, and the importance of the English-language sector to the UK economy.”