Career guidance and counselling services

Article 24 of the Labour Market Regulation Act (Zakon o urejanju trga dela) states that ‘lifelong career orientation services shall be provided for preventive purposes to pupils, secondary-school students, university students and their parents supporting the career orientation programme of schools and faculties’. Lifelong career orientation services include activities leading to insights about the labour market.

One of the measures of the Youth Guarantee is lifelong guidance. The aim of the measure is to increase the availability of information about careers, future employment opportunities and career management skills. For these purposes, the following actions are carried out:

• Career centres for youth (Karierni centri za mlade): The organisations responsible for this measure were the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunitiesand the Employment Service of Slovenia (ESS). The project, running from 2019 to 2020, aimed to improve access to career guidance services for young students in Slovenia. Two projects were funded, one in each cohesion region, involving multiple partners to ensure broad regional coverage. Activities included career workshops in schools, events for parents, company visits, and online resources to help students plan their careers. Despite challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the project successfully adapted to remote formats, achieving significant outreach, including 400 career events, 61 parent-focused activities, and over 1,100 individual consultations. The initiative was well received by schools and stakeholders, addressing a crucial gap in career guidance services.
• Open, responsive, high-quality system of higher education - Further development and implementation of career centres in higher education 2015–2020 (Odprt, odziven in kakovosten sistem visokega šolstva - Nadaljnji razvoj in izvajanje dejavnosti kariernih centrov v visokem šolstvu 2015–2020): The public call aimed to provide students with practical experience during education, enhancing employability, entrepreneurship, and creativity through real-world projects with educational institutions, local communities, and NGOs. Led by the Ministry of Education.

Since the implementation of the Youth Guarantee in 2014,  young people are offered more information and counselling within the first four months after registering as unemployed than other unemployed groups. Employment Service of Slovenia (ESS) offers at  least two counselling sessions, short group presentations and online communication to each unemployed young person to help them achieve their career goals and find appropriate opportunities.

Progress has been made in terms of professionalizing lifelong career guidance in Slovenia. In 2015, postgraduate training was provided to professionals who offer guidance services, including advisers employed by the Employment Service of Slovenia (ESS), schools and Human resource management firms (HRM). Quality guidelines have been written and accepted by all stakeholders. The ESS continuously attempts to reach out to young not in employment, education or training (NEETs) through workshops organised by school counsellors. Such cooperation has been established on the national and regional levels.

According to the MDDSZ (2016), one of the objectives of the ongoing project ‘Service development of Lifelong career guidance’ is to develop tools for career counselling, especially aimed at young people. Career centres that operate within the ESS allow everyone to use LM information and other career support services. In this way, students are informed and advised regarding why, how and where to obtain ESS services and register as unemployed job seekers when they leave school. The ESS is updating web services, such as its Facebook page, with information about guidance, the labour market and opportunities for young entrepreneurs.

Main providers

The Employment Service of Slovenia (ESS) provides labour market information, career counselling, and skill training for the unemployed. Specially trained counsellors offer lifelong career guidance for young people at career centres, while ESS career counsellors conduct various workshops such as ‘Different’, ‘Job as an Advantage’, ‘Collective Forms of Counselling – SOS’ and ‘After Studying in Employment’.

The Chamber of Commerce, ESS, and the National Education Institute run the ‘Career Day’ (Karierni dan) project to introduce promising professions to pupils and parents through visits to different organizations. Piloted in 2014, it has since been integrated into the student guidance system.

A national priority (National report for Slovenia) for youth employment and entrepreneurship is enhancing career guidance. ESS supports education policy through vocational counselling centres, labour market lectures, programmes ('Drugače o poklicih') and assistance for students struggling with career choices.

Slovenian universities have operated career centres for years to ease the transition from education to employment. The ESS also runs the Career Centre (formerly the Centre for Informing and Vocational Counselling) to support career development.

Other providers of counselling include the following:

• The trade union for students, pupils and employed youth, Mladi Plus (Sindikat Mladi plus), offers career counselling to its members. Career counsellors help individuals set career goals, examine their competencies and the needs of the labour market and improve their job applications and CVs.
• In December 2016, the Nefiks Institute created the course 'Training for Youth Career Counsellors’ (Usposabljanje za mladinske karierne svetovalce), which was intended for young people and youth workers who want to provide support to young people regarding career development. The project is co-financed by the Ministry of Education and the European Social Fund. Since 2016, the Nefiks Institute has also been organizing ‘Nefiks Career Day’ (Nefiksov karierni dan) each year. The purpose of the event is to present career opportunities for young people in connection to the EU to high-school students. 
   

Funding

The Youth Guarantee is a European Union initiative ensuring that every young person receives training, an internship, or employment within four months of becoming unemployed or entering the labor market. In Slovenia, individuals up to 29 years old can join the scheme by registering as unemployed. MinistrReport on the Implementation of the Youth Guarantee Action Plan 2016–2020 (Poročilu o izvajanju Izvedbenega načrta Jamstva za mlade 2016–2020) states that between 2016 and 2020, 15 different measures were implemented to support the transition from education to employment and a total of 275.5 million  eur was invested, benefiting over 82,600 young people.

Quality assurance

The implementation of individual measures is monitored by the Youth Guarantee Working Group under the auspices of the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, which is composed of representatives of all ministries responsible for the implementation of the Youth Guarantee measures, as well as representatives of youth sector. In accordance with the implementation plan, the working group prepares a final report at the end of the implementation period and submits it to the Government of the RS for consideration. The working group however does not have any real mechanisms/actions to ensure the quality of services.

Additionally, ESS annually performes surveys on youth's satisfaction with the Youth Guarantee implementation but no actions based on results are foreseen.