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25 October 2004 – The first working meeting of the employment services of the transitional countries, candidate countries for the entry into the EU and the Republic of Slovenia, the EU member state, was held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, between 19 and 21 October 2004. Apart from the representatives of the employment services from Albania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia also two representatives of the Employment Service of Slovenia participated in the meeting – Mr. Jože Glazer, Director General and Mr. Janez Urbas, a councillor. The representatives of the International Labour Organisation and the World Bank took part in the meeting as well.

In his paper the Director General of the Slovenian Employment Service Mr. Jože Glazer presented the situation regarding the labour market and employment in Slovenia and the measures carried out in order to solve unemployment, as well as the development direction of the Employment Service. Councillor Mr. Janez Urbas presented the experiences of the Employment Service of Slovenia in co-ordination and harmonisation of labour and employment law with the EU regulations. Among others, the participants of the meeting decided that within the frame of this co-operation the Slovenian Employment Service will organise a working meeting in Ljubljana at the end of January 2005. The meeting's main topic will be employment of young people.


12 October 2004 – The Employment Service of Slovenia and Kadis, a Slovene company for selecting and training human resources, organised the concluding conference of the pilot project ICTEM – Integrated Counselling, Training and Employment Method, in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 7 October 2004. The project was carried out within the EU programme Leonardo da Vinci. The project holder was the company Kadis from Ljubljana and the partners were the Employment Service of Slovenia and related organisations from Italy (Citta della Scienza), Ireland (FIT Limited) and Great Britain (Jobcentre Plus North East).

The purpose of the concluding conference was to present the project, its implementation in individual partner countries and the achieved results. The unemployed people participating in the project had a possibility to take part in the appropriate active employment policy programmes and thus to improve their job-searching skills, to master the basic computer skills, to acquire regular employment or to increase their employment opportunities. The objective of the project was to develop and test a new approach in the assistance of the employment of young, difficult-to-employ people with lower levels of education and therefore to contribute to the prevention of their social exclusion. The advantages of the new approach are integrated counselling, training and employment adapted to an individual's needs and obstacles, the intertwining of individual and group forms of work, as well as long-term counselling.

More information about the project is available on the company Kadis' website.
 

4 October 2004 – The representatives of the Turkish Employment Organisation visited the Employment Service of Slovenia between 27 September and 1 October 2004. The aim of the study visit was to learn about the ESS' experiences and good practice regarding the Phare grant schemes in the area of human resources development. The grant schemes are an important step in the preparation to participate in the European Union's Structural Funds, especially in the European Social Fund. At the same time, the visit was seen as an opportunity to establish contacts with the Turkish Employment Organisation.

Being the first Turkish visit to the ESS, it was carried out within the ISKUR Project – Support to the Turkish Employment Organisation, which is co-financed by the EU external assistance. The project is being implemented by the Swedish company Hifab International in partnership with the Swedish Employment Service (AMS), the Swedish company Lernia and the company IMC Consulting from Great Britain. More information >>>

 

30 September 2004 – The first Hungarian-Croatian conference titled Employment Policy was held in Nagykanizsa in the Zala County in Hungary from 23 to 24 September 2004. Besides the representatives of the employment services and other organisations from Hungary, Croatia, Italy and Austria, the two members of the ESS' Regional Office Murska Sobota also participated, namely Ms Cvetka Sreš, the regional office's director and Ms Melita Krauthaker, the adviser and project co-ordinator in the field of employment programmes.

They presented the situation on the labour market in Slovenia with the emphasis on the Pomurje region, as well as the contents and results of the two projects which are being carried out by the Regional Office Murska Sobota within the grant scheme Phare CBC 2001 Slovenia - Hungary "Joint Economic Space" in the area of human resources development: "Education for Young and Mature Age" and "New Initiatives and Opportunities". Both projects are intended to promote the unemployed people's entering the world of work and are based on the cross-border co-operation. One of the partners in the first project is the Employment Service from the Zala County which also organised the conference with the aim to present the labour market and employment policy in individual participating countries.

 

30 July 2004 – Between 23 July and 6 August 2004 the Challenges of Enlargement Community College CECC 2004 took place in Trieste, Italy, and in Pliskovica, Slovenia. The event was organised by the Goodwill ACC – Association for Community Colleges, an international non-governmental organisation, in conjunction with local and European partners. The participants were young people from ten European countries: Poland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Denmark, Estonia, Austria, Slovenia and Spain. Ms Mirela Pekica, a representative of Slovenia’s Employment Service and EURES adviser, collaborated actively at the event. The meeting as a whole was an opportunity for participants to familiarise themselves, via workshops and debates, with the issues surrounding the enlargement of the European Union, the dynamics of regionalisation processes, the phenomenon of cross-border mobility and border area identities. More information >>>

 

5 July 2004 – The Director General of the Slovenian Employment Service, Mr Jože Glazer, and a colleague from the Service’s international co-operation division, Mr Joco Klopčič, visited the Estonian public employment service between 30 June and 2 July 2004. The visit was agreed during a visit by representatives of the Estonian employment service to Slovenia in February 2004 and is part of ongoing co-operation between the managements of the two institutions, particularly at various international events and meetings.

During their visit the representatives of the Slovenian Employment Service had the opportunity to learn in detail about the Estonian labour market and the public employment service in Estonia, the strategic documents and legislation dealing with employment, the system of social security for the unemployed, the development of the IT system and self-service facilities for clients, the introduction of the European Social Fund and the challenges facing the Estonian employment service. They also visited two labour offices where, among other things, they familiarised themselves with the work undertaken with employers and the activities of EURES advisers. The representatives of the Estonian and Slovenian services also agreed on the possibilities and areas for further mutual co-operation on the basis of common interests.

 

25 June 2004 – Under the auspices of the Irish presidency of the European Union, on 21 June 2004 a conference was held in Dublin on the importance of investment in human capital, which was attended by social partners from the EU Member States. From Slovenia the conference was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Labour, the Ministry of Education and the Chamber of Commerce, and by Mrs Mavricija Batič, the Deputy Director General of the Employment Service of Slovenia. Mrs Batič also took part in a workshop organised in Brussels on 15 June 2004 by the World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES), Europe region. The workshop was dedicated to two current topics: promotion of active ageing and performance indicators of public employment services.

 

24 June 2004 – Under the Irish presidency of the EU, a regular meeting of directors general of public employment services from the EU and the representatives of the European Commission was held on 17 June 2004 in Dublin, followed by a regular meeting of the EURES High Level Strategy Group. The conference Labour Mobility in Europe – Working together in a larger labour market was also organised in Dublin from 18 to 19 June 2004. Two representatives of the Slovenian Employment Service took part in both events – Mr. Jože Glazer, Director General, and Ms. Sonja Pirher, an assistant to Director General. Ms. Mirela Pekica, an EURES adviser from the Employment Service of Slovenia, participated in the conference which was organised at the 10th anniversary of the EURES network by the Irish hosts and the European Commission. Ms. Pekica was a member of the international team of facilitators helping to steer the conference's working groups, one of them was presided by Mr. Glazer. The conference was attended by directors general of public employment services and their assistants, EURES managers and advisers, the representatives of the ministries of labour from individual member countries, as well as the representatives of social partners at the European level.

 

11 June 2004 – Organised by the European Commission, the final training of the EURES advisers was held in Vienna from 5 to 8 June 2004. Four EURES advisers from the Employment Service of Slovenia took part: Ms. Katarina Zajec, Ms. Darja Kapun Grauf, Ms. Mirela Pekica and Ms. Vanja Nardin. Upon the organiser's invitation, Mr. Jože Glazer, Director General of the ESS, was a guest speaker in the plenary part of the final training. He presented the role of EURES in Slovenia after the accomplished EU enlargement process, as well as the preparations and the ESS' joining the EURES network. Mr. Glazer also met Mr. Herbert Buchinger, Director General of the Austrian Employment Service AMS. At the meeting they discussed the present and future mutual co-operation between the two employment services, the possibilities of further co-operation among the central European employment services and the participation in the WAPES (World Association of Public Employment Services).

 

3 June 2004 – In the first half of 2004, the staff of the Employment Service of Slovenia participated in numerous international activities, however, they were particularly active in the preparatory activities of EURES. Ms. Valerija Okorn, the EURES manager at the ESS and her colleagues, the EURES advisers, took part in the EURES training organised under the auspices of the European Commission in Paris (14 - 22 January 2004) and in Barcelona (18 - 26 February, and 28 April - 6 May 2004). They also participated in the EURES seminar on mobility in Kemi, Finland, from 20 to 23 May 2004. As part of the preparations in joining the EURES network, the representatives of the ESS together with their colleagues from the Slovak, Czech and Hungarian employment services attended the EURES/AMS IT information day which was organised by the Austrian Employment Service AMS in order to present its EURES information system. The EURES manager from the Slovene Employment Service participated in the meetings of the EURES Working Party in Brussels (2 - 3 February, and 27 - 28 May 2004). She also took part in the workshop in Voorschoten, the Netherlands (7 - 8 February 2004), which was organised for the new members by the Dutch EURES within their preparations in the EU enlargement process.

 

30 April 2004 – Upon the invitation of the Swedish Public Employment Service AMS the assistant to the Director General of the Employment Service of Slovenia Ms. Sonja Pirher took part in the international conference in Stockholm between 24 and 28 April 2004. The first part of the conference focused on the final part of the Work Life and EU Enlargement project (WLE) which was funded by the Swedish government in the period from 2001 to 2004. In collaboration with the Swedish Employment Service, the study visits and workshops for the Slovene participants (from the ESS) were carried out within this project as well. The main topics included the work with the unemployed, entering into the EURES network and preparations for the participation in the ESF. The second part of the conference was devoted to the agreement on the initial participation in the new project Work Life Development Programme (WLDP), which will also be funded by the Swedish government in the 2004–2006 period. This gives an opportunity for a direct exchange of experience among various employment services. More information …

All visitors of the Employment Service's website please kindly note that the information up to the year 2004 has been moved to the Archive. The ESS' website has been redesigned but all the information up to the year 2004 has been retained in the original form.