The vocational guidance provided by the ESS is intended for all those that require and desire assistance in deciding on a career. The ESS provides users with all the information they need to plan their careers. We offer assistance in setting and achieving goals in relation to employment, education, training and the acquisition of skills so as to allow individuals to ease their transition from unemployment to employment, education and training, or from education to the labour market. The vocational guidance programme is carried out by professional advisors at local offices, regional offices, Vocational Information and Guidance Centres (VIGCs), information points and information booths.

National and Zois scholarships can be obtained by apprentices, secondary school pupils and students who meet the conditions set by the Act and the Rules on Scholarships. The primary objective of national scholarships is to enable young people from low-income families to achieve a proper education; that of Zois scholarships is to encourage the development of highly gifted students. At the end of December 2004, 40,586 secondary-school pupils and university students were receiving national scholarships, and 12,915 secondary school pupils and university students were in receipt of Zois scholarships. The number of national scholarships began to increase in the early 1990s, which coincided with the fall in the number of company scholarships. Despite the large number of applications and recommendations it received, the ESS managed to deal with 93% of all complete applications within one month of the conclusion of the tender, thus ensuring the speedy payout of scholarships.

VICC

The purpose of VICCs is to offer young people who are making their first decision on their future occupation and adults (unemployed and those in employment) who are changing their professional career, seeking new employment or wishing to continue their education with accurate and sufficient information to make it easier for them to take decisions independently. They are also of assistance to careers advisors, to job advisors who need information in order to improve their work results, and to other interested parties. VICCs provide information in a variety of forms: in written form, on the internet and through a variety of video presentations. In 2004 around 80,000 people visited VICCs. VICCs also took 18,350 telephone calls requesting information.

A VICC began operation in Koper in 2004, joining those already in existence in Ljubljana and Maribor. There are also VICC information points within the following offices: Ribnica LO, Brežice LO, Celje RO, Jesenice LO, Škofja Loka LO, Domžale LO, Kamnik LO, Velenje RO, Ptuj RO, Ajdovščina RO and Postojna LO, and in Novo Mesto library, at Žalec Adult Education College, Kočevje library, and in the premises of the Impol Kadring company in Slovenska Bistrica. VICC information points were reopened in Murska Sobota and Lendava in 2004.

There are VICC information booths in operation at Ptuj LO, Novo Mesto LO, Trbovlje LO, Murska Sobota LO, Ljutomer LO and Gornja Radgona LO. The information booth at Zagorje LO was reopened. The ESS also supplies material to other information booths located in youth centres within the area covered by Velenje RO.