- 2016Pilot
- 2017Implementation
- 2018Implementation
- 2019Implementation
- 2020Implementation
- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
Background
The ESF project Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET builds on the related 2013-15 ESF project Development of secondary VET.
Objectives
One of the objectives of this ESF project targets guidance and counselling of pupils and parents to support them during a decision on VET. An orientation centre and dual points should be instrumental for appropriate support. Here are some planned outcomes:
- a model and methodology of dual point activities;
- a manual in support of career guidance and counselling of basic school pupils and their parents in the process of entering dual VET;
- a model and methodology of orientation centre;
- a proposal on legislation regarding the implementation of the orientation centre reflecting experience from pilots.
Description
The ESF project Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET launched in 2016 and run by the State Institute of Vocational Education (ŠIOV) aims at improving career guidance and counselling services for learners in VET and those who consider entering this field. As part of this project an orientation centre was piloted in Nitra, targeting lower secondary pupils, teachers and educational counsellors.
VET teachers and trainers were targeted by in-service training offered by ŠIOV (in cooperation with dual points) within the accredited programme Accompanying and motivating learners in dual VET focusing on career guidance. Lower secondary teacher action was via the accredited programme Dual VET system in secondary VET schools for basic school pedagogical staff, to facilitate transition of learners to dual VET.
Career guidance and counselling on dual VET and adults has been carried out by ŠIOV since then. Sustainability of the service (funding, staff) after completion of the ESF project remains in question.
In 2019, the amendment of the Act on Pedagogical and Professional Staff also influenced guidance, through better distinction in positions and responsibilities between career counsellors and educational counsellors. Although some changes in legislation have already been announced, further reduction of the teaching load of educational counsellors is unlikely due to the impact on the State budget.
The ESF project Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET launched in 2016 and run by the State Institute of Vocational Education (ŠIOV) aims at improving career guidance and counselling services for learners in VET and those who consider entering this field. As part of this project an orientation centre was piloted in Nitra, targeting lower secondary pupils, teachers and educational counsellors.
VET teachers and trainers were targeted by in-service training offered by ŠIOV (in cooperation with dual points) within the accredited programme Accompanying and motivating learners in dual VET focusing on career guidance. Lower secondary teacher action was via the accredited programme Dual VET system in secondary VET schools for basic school pedagogical staff, to facilitate transition of learners to dual VET.
Career guidance and counselling on dual VET and adults has been carried out by ŠIOV since then. Sustainability of the service (funding, staff) after completion of the ESF project remains in question.
In 2019, the amendment of the Act on Pedagogical and Professional Staff also influenced guidance, through better distinction in positions and responsibilities between career counsellors and educational counsellors. Although some changes in legislation have already been announced, further reduction of the teaching load of educational counsellors is unlikely due to the impact on the State budget.
Within the national ESF project Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET, a private company, Centire, was contracted and the experience of the Talent Centre of the Styrian Economic Chamber in Graz was adjusted to the Slovak environment. After piloting the 'Talent Centrum' in Nitra further expansion is expected.
The Act on Pedagogical and Professional Staff (138/2019), opening a new window for capacity building in schools and supporting organisations to offer career guidance and counselling services, was adopted on 10 May 2019. Hiring new staff to expand career guidance and counselling services might be hampered by a lack of professionals. Therefore, teachers in secondary schools working as educational counsellors will remain crucial players and their continuous support is fundamental. However, only a very slight reduction in an educational counsellor's teaching load was accepted by the government in January 2019. It is very likely that this reduction of their teaching load, that is lower than recommended by specialists, will hamper them in the expansion of services.
The talent centre in Nitra served over 4 000 pupils of grades 8 and 9 of basic schools looking for information before the decision on secondary school and programme by the end of 2020.
As a result of the implementation of the law on pedagogical staff (138/2019), 79 job placements were created for professional staff: career counsellors in 79 district centres of pedagogical-psychological counselling and prevention (CPPCaPs). They will focus on activities that would be less efficient when performed in schools. At the same time, active support activities will be offered to career counsellors, school counsellors and education counsellors who will provide counselling in schools within the territorial scope of the relevant CPPCaP. Career counsellors in eight CPPCaPs within regions will provide methodological and supervisory activities concerning the performance of career counselling in each region.
By the end of activity in 2021, 311 VET teachers and trainers completed in-service training focusing on career guidance for students, and 256 lower secondary teachers were retrained to understand and promote dual VET.
In August 2021, the government adopted an amendment to the Education Act (245/2008), foreseeing also transformation of the current guidance and counselling system for five levels of support services. The first level should be offered in schools by individual specialists, the second level by school support teams already under construction. The third and fourth levels should be offered by centres of counselling and prevention, serving all children in need, and the fifth level by specialised centres of counselling and prevention offering specialised services. Newly created regional networks of counselling institutions complying with a new counselling model should start working from 1 January 2023. To bring the service even more to clients in the Banská Bystrica region, the creation of district career centres under the management of the self-governing region is being piloted.
The Lifelong learning and counselling strategy for 2021-30, approved by the government on 24 November 2021, suggests overcoming the current institutional fragmentation of services by the creation of a comprehensive system of lifelong guidance and counselling.
A decree of the education ministry of 17 January 2022 regulates school centres responsible for counselling and prevention of misbehaviour.
In parallel to counselling services, which may also include career guidance and counselling, there are also institutions specialising in career guidance. The dual points set up under the national ESF project Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET are currently subordinated to the State Institute of Vocational Education (SIOV) and located nationwide in the premises of the regional branches of the Methodological-Pedagogical Centre. They have been operational since 1 January 2022 as regional centres of SIOV with the main task to cooperatie with employer representatives and dual companies and particularly collect data on the provision of training by dual companies as a prerequisit of the so-called direct payments from the State budget to these companies. Assigned by the SIOV headquartes they are obliged to perform tasks related to VET and lifelong learning as a whole. Institutional changes affecting counselling services are also accompanied by the need to retrain school directors and other staff to meet the challenges related to the provision of services in the first and second levels of support services. Similarly, newly established regional units focusing on career guidance started to contact schools to better target learners who are about to choose a school or a profession.
The Lifelong learning and counselling strategy action plan 2022-24, approved by the government on 20 April 2022, indicated the development and implementation of quality standards for career guidance providers and their accreditation procedures by 2024. The development of a system of professional counselling services within employment services (Thematic area 1.12) specifies measures aimed at capacity building and improving counselling services, e.g. via the creation of a client profiling system.
A new talent centre was established in Trnava drawing from the experience of Talent Centrum in Nitra that piloted a new model of service to young learners and families looking for a choice of secondary VET programme within the national ESF project Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET.
Within the 2021-23 project, Strengthening regional governance in VET towards improving quality, attractiveness and better alignment to the labour market in the Banská Bystrica region, the so-called Regional Vocational Education Platform has been established. This platform connects schools with employers to increase the number of graduates who find employment in their field directly within the region. Activities were implemented in cooperation with eight secondary vocational schools, which are also involved in the Catching-up regions initiative to create networks between basic schools, parents of students, secondary schools and employers. In the area of career guidance support, the project mainly focused on mentoring career advisors, creating and implementing educational courses and processing labour market-related information for career advisors at basic and secondary schools.
The Regional Career Centres Department (ORCK) was established at the Banská Bystrica Regional Office to manage a network of 13 Regional Career Centres created region-wide to communicate with employers to provide information on labour market needs to schools. ORCK organises joint events for schools and employers, aiming to increase the qualifications and awareness of career counsellors at basic and secondary schools in the region. Schools can receive additional impulses to adjust their curricula to better reflect both employers needs and learners potential. In addition, SPACE Youth Centres have been created, serving as single points of contact that offer comprehensive support, information and comprehensive counselling services: career counselling, completing additional support related to psychological, social counselling, coaching, and non-formal learning in the field of life skills development. SPACE services are available in seven cities in the Banská Bystrica Region, free of charge for all young people up to 30 years of age. These centres could also develop into systemic support places for NEETs.
In November 2024, the State Institute of Vocational Education and the Žillina self-governing region signed a memorandum on establishment the talent centre that should start its activities in 2025. The Act on adult education (292/2024), adopted by the parliament on 30 October 2024, aims to enhance the availability of career guidance by creating an opportunity for the public to access career guidance services through individual learning accounts (ILAs). ILAs will be able to be used not only to pay for courses and training, as allowed by existing financial schemes, but also directly for services related to career development. The act introduces a register of career guidance advisors to strengthen awareness of the quality of services. The register will include a list of certified advisors who have met the conditions set by law.
Bodies responsible
- State Institute of Vocational Education (ŠIOV)
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Young people (15-29 years old)
Education professionals
- Teachers
- School leaders
- Guidance practitioners
Entities providing VET
- VET providers (all kinds)
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers to the integration of VET into economic, industrial, innovation, social and employment strategies, including those linked to recovery, green and digital transitions, and where VET is seen as a driver for innovation and growth. It includes national, regional, sectoral strategic documents or initiatives that make VET an integral part of broader policies, or applying a mix of policies to address an issue VET is part of, e.g. in addressing youth unemployment measures through VET, social and active labour market policies that are implemented in combination. National skill strategies aiming at quality and inclusive lifelong learning also fall into this sub-category.
This thematic sub-category refers both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.
In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.
Teachers, trainers and school leaders competences
Competent and motivated VET teachers in schools and trainers in companies are crucial to VET becoming innovative and relevant, agile, resilient, flexible, inclusive and lifelong.
This thematic category comprises policies and practices of initial training and continuing professional development approaches in a systemic and systematic manner. It also looks at measures aiming to update (entry) requirements and make teaching and training careers attractive and bring more young and talented individuals and business professionals into teaching and training. Supporting VET educators by equipping them with adequate competences, skills and tools for the green transition and digital teaching and learning are addressed in separate thematic sub-categories.
The measures in this category target teachers and school leaders, company trainers and mentors, adult educators and guidance practitioners.
This thematic sub-category refers to all kinds of initial and continuing professional development (CPD) for VET educators who work in vocational schools and in companies providing VET. VET educators include teachers and school leaders, trainers and company managers involved in VET, as well as adult educators and guidance practitioners – those who work in school- and work-based settings. The thematic sub-category includes national strategies, training programmes or individual courses to address the learning needs of VET educators and to develop their vocational (technical) skills, and pedagogical (teaching) skills and competences. Such programmes concern state-of-the-art vocational pedagogy, innovative teaching methods, and competences needed to address evolving teaching environments, e.g. teaching in multicultural settings, working with learners at risk of early leaving, etc.
Supporting lifelong learning culture and increasing participation
Lifelong learning refers to all learning (formal, non-formal or informal) taking place at all stages in life and resulting in an improvement or update in knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes or in participation in society from a personal, civic, cultural, social or employment-related perspective (Erasmus+, Glossary of terms, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-d/glossary-common-terms). A systemic approach to CVET is crucial to ensure adaptability to evolving demands.
This broad thematic category looks at ways of creating opportunities and ensuring access to re-skilling and upskilling pathways, allowing individuals to progress smoothly in their learning throughout their lives with better permeability between general and vocational education and training, and better integration and compatibility between initial and continuing VET and with higher education. Individuals should be supported in acquiring and updating their skills and competences and navigating easily through education and training systems. Strategies and campaigns that promote VET and LLL as an attractive and high-quality pathway, providing quality lifelong guidance and tailored support to design learning and career paths, and various incentives (financial and non-financial) to attract and support participation in VET and LLL fall into this thematic category as well.
This thematic category also includes many initiatives on making VET inclusive and ensuring equal education and training opportunities for various groups of learners, regardless of their personal and economic background and place of residence – especially those at risk of disadvantage or exclusion, such as persons with disabilities, the low-skilled and low-qualified, minorities, migrants, refugees and others.
This thematic sub-category refers to initiatives that promote VET and lifelong learning implemented at any level and by any stakeholder. It also covers measures to ensure and broaden access to information about VET to various target groups, including targeted information and promotional campaigns (e.g. for parents, adult learners, vulnerable groups). Among others, it includes national skill competitions and fairs organised to attract learners to VET.
This thematic sub-category refers to providing high-quality lifelong learning and career guidance services, including making full use of Europass and other digital services and resources.
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Guidance for young people: Slovakia. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28569