Vocational orientation at the ESS is aimed primarily at unemployed persons who require assistance in furthering their careers. Through this activity the ESS provides users with all the information they need to plan their careers. We offer support and assistance in setting and achieving goals in relation to employment, education and training as well as to the acquisition of skills that allow individuals to ease their transition from unemployment to employment, education and training, or from education to the labour market. Work with unemployed persons is conducted individually and in groups, depending on the goals they wish to achieve. Part of the vocational orientation is aimed at everyone who desires help in planning employment, training and education, and at young people in school and employees, and is provided in Vocational Information and Guidance Centres (VIGC, in Slovenian CIPS), at information locations and points.

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 gain an education, and of Zois scholarships to encourage the development of highly gifted students and to raise the education level of the most able young people. At the end of December 2007, 34,469 secondary-school pupils and university students were entitled to national scholarships, and 12,551 secondary school pupils and university students were entitled to Zois scholarships. The number of national scholarships started to grow at the beginning of the nineties, at the same time as a decline in the number of personnel scholarships, and reached a peak in the mid-nineties, then started gradually to fall owing to the reduced inflow of pupils from primary school to secondary education.

Scholarships in the academic years from 1995/96 to 2007/2008