Due to the need for better career information, already over 20 years ago, in cooperation with the representatives of employers and career counsellors at the Velenje regional office of the Employment service of Slovenia (ESS), we had organized and performed lectures and meetings with students and their parents. We discussed secondary school educational options. We presented organisation of the education system, transition possibilities, progression paths, differences between primary and secondary school, life at the secondary schools, study success, problem solving, etc. These meetings have since become traditional, and we yearly visit at least 20 primary schools in the regions of Celje and Koroška, right after the call for enrolment into the first year of secondary school is published.

Today, secondary school representatives visit primary schools alone. Previously the ESS representatives have provided parents with information on the possibilities of gaining scholarships, labour market demands, the structure of long-term unemployed, etc. With these joint actions, we have tried to accustom parents to responsible decisions about the secondary school programme and to the fact that career guidance is a process. We have also successfully cooperated with the ESS at preparing meetings for the parents of last-year secondary school students. Besides the educational options and scholarships, we have also presented them with employment possibilities. Such cooperation no longer exists, which is unfortunate, for together we could provide parents with quality information and advice.

Another traditional event at Velenje school centre is the meeting with counsellors from primary schools, where future students of our secondary school programmes are coming from. We inform them in detail about the changes in secondary education, curriculum and content, study results of students, results of the matura exam and final examinations and the efforts made for the students with special needs. During these visits we provide expert tours at the schools and show them new equipment and programmes. In meetings with counsellors the ESS does not participate any more and we also stopped broadcasting together at the local radio and TV stations.

The reason for diminished and less efficient cooperation lies in changed legislation and tasks of the ESS. The cooperation with the employers has decreased due to company scholarships being less common as certain professions are already being well represented at the labour market. Cooperation with employers is stronger only in case of occupations in shortage.
  
As a consequence, we provide career guidance alone, although due to decreasing enrolment in professional and technical secondary schools, secondary school teachers increasingly cooperate in preparation of workshops provided for primary school students in the form of a natural science or technical science days. In 2005 over 350 students have attended workshops at the professional and technical school for electrical engineering and computer science, where they have learned about the electrical engineering. We have presented them typical workplaces in electrical engineering and the possibilities and conditions of education and employment. They had also built electronic whistles and robots.

We promote enrolment in professional and technical schools, and that is why we are bothered by expensive actions that weren't thought out well, for example "festival promotion of professions", which the students attended only to have a free day from school and to meet famous singers. We suggest more extensive cooperation and continuous presentations with the representatives of the Employment service of Slovenia and employers. We also suggest more hours for career guidance in primary and secondary education for the promotion of life-long learning.