National Initiatives Concerning the Career Guidance/Information/Vocational Counselling - Slovenia

Sources: Employment Service of Slovenia and Slovenian Institute for Adult Education (SIAE)

• Vocational guidance for schoolchildren
• Vocational guidance for adults
• Adult Education Information and Councelling Project
• Vocational Information and Counselling Centre (VICC)
• National Vocational Information and Guidance Centre (NVIGC)
• VIGC library

Vocational guidance is intended for schoolchildren and adults, for those who are still to decide on their future profession, as well as those who are looking for work or seeking a new career.

Vocational guidance for schoolchildren

Vocational guidance for schoolchildren is conducted by the Employment Service of Slovenia (ESS) careers advisers, in collaboration with school careers advisers. In 2001 the ESS funded psychological tests of abilities for the entire seventh-grade population, and its advisers conducted team advisory sessions in primary schools for 22,985 eighth-grade pupils (before they make a decision on their future education or occupation). Careers advisers also gave lectures to parents of seventh-graders (278 lectures), to eighth-graders (79 lectures) and secondary-school pupils (19 lectures), mostly about the labour market and the factors affecting career development.

Most of the ESS careers advisers' time was spent on giving one-to-one advice sessions. In 2001 they advised 9,535 young people (58% girls, 42% boys); 46% of them were primary-school children, 40% secondary-school pupils and 14% students. Advisers have noticed that, as a rule, these advice sessions are attended by young people who find it difficult to choose a profession. Moreover, an increasing number of young people are coming to obtain information on occupations and training. Since there is an increasing amount of written information available as the ESS and in VIGCs (Vocational Information and Guidance Centres), young people come in order to clarify certain questions. In 2001 this type of information was sought by 19,636 young people.

Careers advisers work with adults who need advice and information regarding their career path. Most are unemployed people who have difficulties in formulating their employment plans and who were given a referral by their job adviser. As many as 88% of all who came for an advice session in 2001 were adults.

Psychologists held 13,588 one-to-one sessions with unemployed people, 7,341 of whom were under the age of 26 (62%). This is important because it is mainly these people who decide to join various forms of additional training, to complete studies started in the past, or to change their current profession. As a rule, vocational advisers work together with job advisers when working with those who join Programme 5000.

In addition to the unemployed, careers advisers are also contacted by people not registered with the ESS, as well as by people still in employment (around 8% in 2000). They seek advice in connection with continuing education, changing their professional career, and so on. For many of them this is a way of avoiding open unemployment, or at least of being better prepared for the transition into open unemployment.

People who drop out of school during the academic year are treated as a special adult category. In 2001, 337 such dropouts responded to invitations to come for an advice session.

The number of one-to-one sessions with adults has exceeded that of one-to-one sessions with young people. In addition to careers advice, advisers also provide information on a one-to-one basis. In 2001, 12,056 adults came for an information session.

Number of one-to-one sessions with schoolchildren and adults, 2001

Adult Education Information and Councelling Project

The demand of adults for information and advice concerning their education and learning is continually growing. Adult education information and counselling is hardly developed in Slovenia, therefore, the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education (SIAE) decided to take a systematic and holistic approach in developing this field.

The SIAE has prepared theoretical foundations and set up a general model for the development of information and counselling activities at the local level, thereby preparing the model for transfer into practice. First providers of adult information and counselling activities were selected from five different surroundings: Koper, Maribor, Murska Sobota, Novo mesto in Žalec. These are all folk high-schools with longstanding tradition and rich experience in the field of adult education. The project's aim is to spread adult information and counselling services to all larger centres in the country.

The project's basic purpose is to provide adults with all-embracing and high-quality information and counselling related to their education and learning (when making decisions and selecting the most suitable education, while in the process of education, and at its end) in order to bring these services nearer to every adult in a local environment.

Special emphasis is paid to:

• the organisational form of networking,
• the establishment of the required data bases,
• the co-operation of all partners involved at the local level and with institutions at the national level,
• the training of staff,
• monitoring and evaluation of the whole network.

In 2000, the project was included in the EBiS Project (EBiS - Adult Education in South Eastern Europe) within the framework of the Stability pact for South Eastern Europe.

Vocational Information and Counselling Centre (VICC)

A large proportion of vocational information and advisory work is conducted by VIGCs (Vocational Information and Guidance Centres).

VIGCs are intended for young people making their first decision on their future occupation, for adults (unemployed and those in employment) changing their professional career, seeking new employment, wishing to continue their education or needing information on possibilities for financial assistance, and for vocational and job advisers who need information in order to improve their work results.

VIGCs provide information in a variety of forms: in written form on the internet and through a variety of video presentations. The information is provided with the assistance of various institutions, which include the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the Institute for Education and Sport, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Chamber of Trades, the Adult Education Centre, both universities, and schools.

The number of visitors is constantly increasing. In 2001 the VIGC recorded 33,785 visitors and 7,660 telephone calls. Primary-school children make their first visit to the centre in an organised group. The same applies to secondary-school pupils, particularly before dates set for enrolment. The Centre organises seminars for students at the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Social Sciences on the role of the ESS, vocational guidance, and the VIGC as a tool for assistance in seeking employment. The number of unemployed adults seeking information on employment opportunities from the VIGC is also on the increase.

In 2001 there were two VIGCs, one in Ljubljana and one in Maribor, and five VIGC information points (in Ribnica, Brežice, Celje, Žalec and Kočevje). Just before the end of the year another VIGC information point opened in Slovenska Bistrica. In small towns the involvement of local partners that contribute funds towards the opening of such points plays a crucial role.

National Vocational Information and Guidance Centre (NVIGC)

In 1999 the ESS became a member of the EU National Resource Centre for Vocational Guidance (NRCVG). In 2001 the ESS extended its contract for cooperation in the network.

Membership of this network provides for easy access to information on the possibilities for professional training and study in countries that are members of the network, participation in various European projects, and monitoring of the vocational guidance situation in those parts of the world covered by the network. At the same time it supplies the network with corresponding information about Slovenia.

In 2001 the ESS attended all regular sessions of the NRCVG network. The ESS organised a seminar entitled European Mobility; the invited parties included Austrian and Italian representatives, who described their models of vocational guidance and the opportunities for Slovenian citizens to study in these countries. In 2001 the NVIGC received delegations from various institutions and representatives of foreign countries (Great Britain, Macedonia, Yugoslavia, Ireland, Austria).

In 1996 a start was made, as part of the Leonardo da Vinci programme, on a three-year pilot project entitled ESTIA. Its aim was to increase mobility within Europe through the following instruments:

• greater access to up-to-date information on education, occupations and the labour market;
• better links between job advisers and other vocational guidance experts;
• better training for job advisers and other experts on the use of computer tools in advisory work.

VIGC library

The VIGC library currently stocks:

• descriptions of occupations of various levels of difficulty and from various fields;
• information on available courses and training at all secondary schools, higher professional colleges and universities, both in regular and part-time education, postgraduate studies, and all current school vacancies;
• information on accommodation in student dormitories;
• information on additional education and training opportunities, and adult education vacancies;
• information on various forms of financial assistance, from national, Zois and company scholarships to loans, funds and foundations;
• other tools and instructions on how to seek employment, computer programmes for designing one's own study path, and videotapes on groups of professions, individual professions and on seeking employment, individual schools, etc.;
• other resources relating to education, employment, jobseeking, legislation and regulation governing the area;
• over 100 video presentations on various topics.

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