Romana Blažun, IZIDA

The primary activity of IZIDA, the Information, education and counselling centre is research, development and use of career orientation methods and as a part of this, preparing children and youth to choose their profession. The whole time of our operation we have been trying to find ways to bring the world of work and professions closer to young people and allow them to discover themsleves, their abilities and talents through different activities for development of interests. The preparation of children and youth for the choice of their profession that is provided in our institution is intended for senior students of primary school, grammar school students and other secondary schools students, university students, the younger unemployed and young people who are employed, but wish to change their occupation. A special feature of our activity is that it is provided in the form of a process, in which the participant grows professionaly and personally, learns about himself and independently reaches a professional decision. The participant is required to participate constantly. The activity is compatible with other forms of career counselling; therefore it is provided together with schools, local offices of the ESS and other counselling services.

Development of interests

The project Promocija poklicev in poklicna vzgoja v osnovni šoli (Promotion of occupations and career education in primary school), the project Mladi za znanost in razvoj (Youth for science and development) and different creative activities Poklicno svetovanje in informiranje (Career counselling and information) are intended for the youth as assistance to independently reach a career decision. These are based on dialogue and not on testing. They are conducted so that we find the interest fields together with counselees, help them realize their values and expectations and help them try recognizing their other characteristics. We create a plan of different activities that will help them towards the decision, we organize selected activities, accompany the counselee until the final decision and if neccessary, supplement the plan with new activities or change it. The plan is adapted to the needs of every individual – we accompany them all the time to continually monitor their progress. After the completion of activities at least one more counselling session must be held.

Information on occupation is provided in cooperation with the Employment Service of Slovenia, as a part of the project Drugače o poklicih [Careers from another point of view]. It is ensured in different ways: with visits to the work organizations, interviews with experts, excursions. During career information in companies and institutions we continually work together with school counsellors.

The career planning workshop is intended for secondary school students in the third and the fourth years, university students, young unemployed, PUM participants and other people who are faced with a career decision. It provides managed and goal oriented studying and absorbement into oneself, one's interests, aptitudes, values, career interests. In finding solutions the participants often use suitable tools, with which they test their career and education orientations. The final goal of the workshop is that they define neccessary activities that will help them towards the final decision and that the participants are aware of the realistic time frame. Every participant draws a list of occupations and education programmes that he will get to know better and among which is at least one programme which he will later choose as the study field or future occupation. The participant also defines which of these he wants to get to know directly and draws up a content and time plan, how to realize everything. This will help towards the final decision.

For development of career interests we are running a project titled Promocija poklicev in poklicna vzgoja v osnovni šoli [Promotion of occupations and career education in primary school]. In the innovative phase it was carried out by the programme Phare Mocca in 2000. We have created new methods of career guidance. With their help we can efficiently develop interest for technical and other professional fields in children. Among students we mostly raise interest in professions that are in shortage and our activity is based on the partnership relations between the primary schools, secondary schools and companies. It is appropraite for pupils of grades five to eight of the primary school, but can also be adapted for development of career interests among older juveniles. In this academic year 20 primary schools have started participating in this project. The activity is progressively broadened and increasingly more school and companies participate.

The methods developed within this project consist of several levels and are also organized in such a way that the children and juveniles get to know themselves and mature.

The basic elements of the project are:

• Motivational presentations – these are dynamic presentations of individual economic activities and corresponding occupations. With the help of these the students get familiarised with the education programmes, the industry which needs workers with such education and typical occupations; In order that they can picture the work more easily, they can watch simple working operations and also participate in them;
• The students that are more interested in the activity can then later participate in the interest development workshop. The programmes of workshops are written by secondary vocational and professional schools together with companies. They are provided on two levels: the initial and the continuing level. The workshops are carried out in combination, namely, partly in schools and partly in companies;
• Workshops for preservation of interests – when a certain activity in school is continuing, the students who had participated in the programme in the past years participate in special workshops, which ensure maintenance and preservation of interest;
• At the same time information for parents is provided in order to familiarise them with education programmes and opportunities of later employment;
• After completed workshops the students present their experience to their schoolmates, teachers and parents and thus themselves contribute to better information.

The pupils of the same primary school are gradually offered more and more activities in which they can participate. Rich choice will allow them to discover a range of industries and occupations, within which they can find themselves. The model and individual methods are general and can be applied for all children and juveniles and for all occupational fields.

Objavljeno v zborniku 2. posveta na temo Zaposlovanje – socialno vključevanje. Dvigovanje zaposlitvenega potenciala mladih, Rogaška Slatina 2005. Urad RS za mladino in Mladinski CEH – Nefiks.