Vocational guidance at the ESS is intended for anyone who needs and wants help in deciding on a career. Through this activity we provide users with all the information they need to plan their career path. We offer them help in setting and achieving goals in employment, education, training and acquiring skills through which individuals facilitate the transition from unemployment to employment, education and training or from education to the labour market. The vocational guidance programme is provided by vocational guidance counsellors in LO, RO and Vocational Information and Guidance Centres (VIGC), at information points and information corners.

Vocational guidance 

National or Zois scholarships are open to apprentices, schoolchildren and students meeting the conditions laid down by the Scholarships Act and Rules. The basic objective of national scholarships is to enable education for young people from poor socio-economic circumstances, while the objective of Zois scholarships is to encourage the development of the exceptionally gifted. At the end of December 2005, 38,942 school pupils, apprentices and students were entitled to national scholarships, and 12,879 school pupils and students were eligible for Zois scholarships. The number of national scholarships began to rise at the start of the 1990s at the same time as the number of company scholarships began to fall.

Scholarships, academic years 1991/92 to 2005/2006

The purpose of VIGC is to offer accurate and sufficient information to young people first deciding on a career, as well as to adults (unemployed or employed) changing their careers, seeking new employment or wanting to continue education, in order to help them make their own decisions. It is also of help to vocational guidance counsellors, employment advisors who need information to improve the results of their work, and all other interested parties. Information at VIGC is available in various forms: written material, Internet, various video presentations. 87,509 users visited VIGC in 2005, while information was provided by telephone on 20,812 occasions.

In seven years of operation, a network of 29 centres has been formed. VIGC operated in 2005 in Ljubljana, Maribor and Koper and VIGC information points operated in LO Ribnica, LO Brežice, RO Celje, LO Jesenice, LO Škofja Loka, LO Domžale, LO Kamnik, RO Velenje, RO Ptuj, LO Ajdovščina, the Library in Novo Mesto, LO Postojna, Folk University Žalec, the Library in Kočevje, the premises of the Impol Kadring company in Slovenska Bistrica, the Central Study Library in Murska Sobota and LO Lendava. New VIGC information points opened in 2005 in Šentjur and Slovenj Gradec.

VIGC information corners operate at: LO Ptuj, LO Novo Mesto, LO Trbovlje, LO Murska Sobota, LO Ljutomer, LO Gornja Radgona and LO Zagorje. We also supply materials to certain information points in youth centres in the area of RO Velenje.

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