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GUIDANCE FOR LEARNING EDUCATIONAL GUIDANCE SUPPORT FOR ADULTS
As a young mother I had no qualifications,
no job, I was at home with my children, uncertain.
I didn’t know if I would ever get an education.
I couldn’t afford to pay tuition,
with two children, and a working husband, it’s harder.
You put everything into your children.
I’d almost given up hope of ever getting an education.
I worked in the Mura factory for more than 20 years.
But somehow you feel within yourself, that you have to do something in life.
My name is Aferdita Preshtreshi. I’m from Kosovo.
I was born in Pristina, I’ve been in Slovenia for 13 years.
In Kosovo I worked as a nurse, that’s my education.
I’d like to design custom jewellery, although that’s nothing to do with my education,
but they found it hidden within me, and that’s what I’d like to do.
I’m Pavel Novak, I’m from the Šentjernej area.
I’ve got memory problems, I don’t remember too quickly,
I need a lot of time and effort to consolidate knowledge.
I was afraid in primary school, of failing to learn, I got bad grades,
and I didn’t know how to learn, how to approach learning.
We see increasing numbers of adults who need help and support in deciding
on the right education for them at any given time.
In adult education, guidance activities are the link between adults
who want to learn, or who are already in education, and
educational organisations that offer various learning and education opportunities.
In addition to almost all adult education organisations already offering guidance support,
here at the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education we decided over ten years ago
to develop what are called regional guidance centres
as a central hub within a region offering guidance support to all adults.
We developed fourteen regional guidance centres,
where the trained professional counsellors provide free information and guidance.
ON GUIDANCE
The guidance centre offers free support to all adults involved in education,
both during their education with help to learn, and after their education
in the form of further directions in education, or support in finding employment.
Guidance centre activities are aimed at everyone
not already in full-time education and learning, as well as those who are
but who face barriers to learning and education.
Services are intended for all adults, but we pay particular attention to those
most in need of support, vulnerable target groups.
In our centre we have a lot of unemployed people, because of rising unemployment in the region generally,
and we also have Roma, migrants, people with special needs, and prisoners.
Many clients who contact us do so in person.
Apart from individual assistance in education,
guidance support also includes various forms of group guidance, workshops.
Counsellors offer guidance not just within the centre, they also visit other institutions,
such as libraries, local government offices, or societies.
A mobile guidance service works in a similar way,
where counsellors go to clients who need it.
The foundations of the quality guidance work is, of course, provided by our counsellors.
We therefore pay particular attention to their professional training.
In their work, it’s important that they link up with other organisations,
obtain information on all opportunities for education
and the demand in a particular region.
Guidance centre partners are all public adult education organisations,
the employment service, regional small business chambers, the chamber of commerce and industry,
regional development agencies and the four largest municipalities in the Pomurje region.
It seems to me that the most important thing is that together we motivate unemployed people to enrol in education,
because the decision as an adult to enrol in education is likely very difficult.
We link up and reach agreements with our professional partners
to provide quality services to our clients, for instance we resolve certain professional issues,
we have partners’ meetings, but it particularly involves representing clients in their organisations.
Every year we invite someone from the guidance centre to visit us
and explain and outline to our education participants all the options and services they can provide.
Working with the guidance centre, in our environment, is very important for the deaf and partially deaf population,
and it has produced good results.
We’ve enhanced our cooperation by registering with the Ministry of Education
for a special education programme for deaf and partially deaf people, a 50-hour education programme.
The Slovenian Institute for Adult Education provides
all the necessary professional support to adult education guidance centres.
This covers the development of various approaches to guidance, guidance aids,
databases, promotional materials, information support.
PRE-ENROLMENT GUIDANCE
The guidance centre offers adults services for obtaining an education,
requalification, work-related and occupational training,
as well as various forms of learning and education for personal and career development.
We offer guidance before, during and after enrolment.
Before enrolment, of course, with the aim of motivation,
presenting possible programmes, help and support.
We also provide various workshops, in which we present adult learning and education
as an enjoyable adventure, as a challenge
and of course we somehow overcome the stereotypes or bad experiences
adults may bring with them from primary school.
After completing primary school, I enrolled in the secondary electrical school in Maribor, which I never attended.
At the time you could get a good, well-paid job without qualifications.
By the time I found myself thinking what next, I was already a father with two young children.
I met my friend Alojz Sraka, who works at the guidance centre in Murska Sobota.
And after talking to him, I accepted it with pleasure.
He began to ask me if I had completed my education, where I was, if I had a job.
Sadly at the time I didn’t, and I hadn’t even completed secondary school, and we began to talk about that.
It was very difficult for me, because I wasn’t sure that I’d even continue education.
That’s definitely a very difficult step for adults.
They particularly need an in-depth discussion of the goals they set themselves,
what they want to achieve through learning and education, and what that will mean for their daily lives.
I chose commerce school because that’s what I’ve been doing for the last two and a half years.
I enjoy my work, but I had to take care of my education.
So I enrolled in commerce school, although it was also a tough decision for my family,
but they stood by my decision, and Alojz stood behind everything that helped me.
He repeatedly asked me how I was doing when I enrolled, because I was so uncertain,
I had no self-confidence, I was afraid, my family, everything else,
wondering if I could do it at my age, after all this is adult education.
Although when you start the school, you see people younger and older than yourself,
and you get a positive drive, some motivation.
So I don’t regret my decision, I’ve gained plenty of positive thinking and self-confidence.
And after all those discussions and conversations, I somehow opted for Secondary Healthcare School in Rakičan.
I’m the sort of person who likes to help, to get close to other people, and I respect everybody.
In 2003 I enrolled in the Secondary Healthcare School, and passed the final exam.
And then – again after a discussion in the guidance centre –
I chose a two-year training course as a healthcare technician.
Then in February 2010 I got a job in the children’s ward, where I still work today.
There is also much demand for various examinations, national vocational qualifications,
sorting out learning- and education-related status conditions
and of course in recent years also services for people moving to our region.
When I look back at all my years of education, I made the right decision
and my education today is fully paying off.
Without Lujz’s help my decision would certainly not have been positive.
So I’m grateful to him, for his friendly approach, conversations, encouragement.
Feedback from adults who have successfully achieved their learning and educational goals
is usually very positive, and they’re particularly positive about the fact
that our guidance is independent, free and motivating.
GUIDANCE DURING AND AFTER EDUCATION
I first saw Pavel – I think it was in ’92 –
when his father brought him and his twin brother to the monastery and asked if we had any work for them.
I noticed the boy was curious about everything, he asked a lot of questions, he always wanted to learn something new,
everything we asked him to do, he went and asked why, and how,
and that’s a good sign he wanted to improve himself.
After chatting for a while, we came to the conclusion that it would be good
for him to get some sort of formal education.
So I began attending agricultural school, and I was directed towards RIC.
I first met Pavel more than ten years ago, when he came into our centre,
at the suggestion of an advisor at Grm Novo Mesto, where he was enrolled in adult education,
on the farm assistant programme.
Miss Tina helped me a lot when I was learning, and how I should start learning.
In one or more advisory discussions, we try to help clients
particularly in organising and planning education.
We work together to produce an education plan.
And I was surprised how much he enjoyed attending the school, how conscientious he was.
And I began exam after exam until I’d finished my first education.
From the moment he finished his education until now, when he has re-enrolled,
he attended various informal courses, taught himself computing and similar things.
So he’s active along these lines, and because working in Pleterje as an independent cook,
his desire to continue education along these lines was so strong,
that he’s now gathered the courage to re-enrol in education, on a gastronomy/hotelier course,
and recently delighted us with the first good news, that he’d passed his first exam.
I like to eat, so I asked myself why not try to cook if I already like eating,
so I began and it seemed to work.
Now I’m carrying on, so I have a desire to finish school to show other people,
that there’s more to food than what’s in books, there’s food you can make yourself.
If we find that a client needs specific learning assistance, we also involve learning assistance mentors,
who offer free learning assistance, and also volunteers in our guidance centre.
To get closer to people, in 2012 we enlisted volunteers in our guidance centres,
so we now have twelve pensioners who are very driven ladies
who share their wealth of knowledge and experience, both with guidance centre staff,
and with the adults who visit it.
Pavel has quite a few strengths, in particular he is very persistent.
I’m the sort of person who’s always looking for something new, I always want to learn,
I’ve got much to learn, many questions to ask,
I don’t know when I will stop researching my life.
If you take what you know and head in the right direction, it serves you well, and I am delighted that Pavel
is even now, still seeking out new things. When you stop learning you must also stop working.
His persistence propels him to achieve his goals.
Clients who turn to us after completing their education often have the same reason for doing so:
finding employment.
We encourage people who contact us after education to continue in education,
primarily through non-formal knowledge acquisition,
or perhaps by sitting some short exams, or obtaining a national vocational qualification.
ON VALIDATION
In recent years, we have introduced in adult education guidance the so-called validation of hidden knowledge
which adults have. We have found that adults are unable to take advantage of much of what they already know,
or they forget what they have already learned, so we try to record it,
and encourage adults to consider how the hidden knowledge they have acquired
in various situations could be converted into new opportunities.
Good morning.
Oh hello Aferdita, thanks for coming. You’re welcome.
How are you? Good, thanks, busy. You?
We see each other again. Excellent, here you go.
I met Aferdita at the Let Slovenia Become My Home workshop.
She stood out because of her personality, and her great knowledge, I noticed her jewellery straight away.
Later she told me she’d made it herself, that it was handmade from wire, really something special.
So I invited her to go through the procedure for validation and recognition of non-formal knowledge,
to help her in life, perhaps find a new job or make her own way.
I view her as an artist on an independent trail.
There’s still much I want to achieve.
I hope that Mrs Biserka will help me along the way.
I hope to start my own business.
We said we’d go through the procedure for validation and recognition of non-formal knowledge.
The procedure’s simple. I’ll guide you through the whole process.
First we complete an application form, followed by an interview, then we’ll review your individual skills.
That means we’ll have about five or six meetings in the future.
Let’s take a step forward until step by step we’ll come to the final certificate
which will give an opinion on your individual competences.
Along with the procedure for which candidates apply, we provide free advice,
determination of non-formal knowledge, competences, validation through suitable tools and procedures.
You’ve got particularly strong social skills, as proven by your award for Volunteer of the Year 2010,
that’s something amazing that you did.
All of this will be included in the electronic portfolio, it will be scanned and collected.
The e-portfolio is a folder all about you. You can add your picture to your profile like so.
And in the end it’s also a Europass CV, an electronic CV recognised all over Europe.
Individuals, organisations and companies all benefit from non-formal knowledge.
For individuals, it often increases confidence, and awareness of just how much knowledge
and experience they actually have.
It increases employability, and it can also be empowering, leading to new paths,
they can choose new education or career paths.
Particularly for dropouts, people who didn’t complete their education, and it’s the right way
for them to demonstrate their knowledge,
for unemployed people, immigrants and people with few qualifications.
GUIDANCE – OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
I’m more confident,
I know that I’ve made something of myself.
Thanks to the guidance centre, I feel more confident, I know that I’ve got someone behind me,
and I'm 100%, that I can do one thing.
I wasn’t confused or doubtful that I would achieve something,
because I was 100% sure that they’d invested a lot of effort in me,
and so had I.
I have to say that the number of people looking for support in guidance centres is growing every year,
which means we really have found something that adults need,
and that we’ve added the regional guidance centre into the adult education mosaic.
I’m happy now, I enjoy this job. I liked my old one too,
but I’m working with young children, we get along with each other, so I’m really satisfied.
I want to continue to achieve things here.
And I recommend other people visit the guidance centre for a chat,
to see if there are any educational opportunities.