Association of Slovene Higher Education Colleges (SKUPNOST VSS)

Who are we?

The Association of Slovene Higher Vocational Colleges (Association HVC) was founded as a public institution in 2005, when its Establishing Act was confirmed and adopted by the Slovene government. It is a professional association of higher vocational colleges on the national level. It includes 48 members (96% of all Slovene HVC institutions) all providing EQF level 5 as public or private providers. They offer their programs (31) on 25 locations across Slovenia to 99% of the national EQF level 5 students population (120 ECTS). The Association HVC main mission is to promote the interests of higher vocational education in Slovenia and beyond its borders and to contribute to the progressive development of professional higher education and professional research area. Our members do not only provide higher vocational education programmes, but also contribute to the field of applied research and professional studies as well as directly to the development of local communities and regions. The Association HVC and its members have 20 years of experience in coordination of national and international projects. Our specifics are 40% of curricula that are provided as in company work based learning and the teaching staff requirements that demand up to date professional experience and knowledge from the field of work as well as pedagogical and andragogical competencies of our teaching staff. In doing so we ensure up to date theoretical training at the institution facility and then monitored and guided in company placements with certified and qualified mentors. The result is that our graduates are 97% employed and cherished by the employers as ready to work and act graduates in comparison to their peer graduates from higher education that are experiencing a growing number of unemployment with the bachelor, master and even doctoral degrees. Our values are QUALITY – INNOVATION and ENTREPRENEURSHIP – RESPONSIBILITY – RESPECT.

Why we are participating in the project

Our main goal is to contribute to higher apprenticeship quality of apprenticeship, to promote a smoother transition from education to work for young people, giving them a good start to their working careers. We are aware that Apprenticeships at PHE level provide students with opportunities to build up new skills and knowledge both on and off the job, while providing companies a reliable way to evaluate and shape potential future hires, while at the same time benefiting from new perspectives which can only be offered by students straight out of education. However, despite their clear advantages, apprenticeship systems are extremely challenging to manage. We want to improve monitoring and measurement systems for apprenticeships. The SAT project is a way to improve apprenticeship process and prepare comparable measurement system for quality and for outcomes. We will create a Technology roadmap for apprenticeship management and a Course on apprenticeship management.

Our role in the project

The Association HVC is the consortium beneficiary and is responsible for overall management of the project, monitoring the progress within deadlines, communication between the partners and with the Executive Agency and financial management of the project. We will contribute research existing systems for managing apprenticeships and identify risk factors. We have the main role in programming a model system and integrating feedback. We will also recruit stakeholders to national workshops, prepare and organize national workshop to implement and test the tool.

Our Team

Alicia-Leonor Sauli-Miklavčič

Alicia-Leonor Sauli-Miklavčič

Project Manager & Coordinator

Alicia coordinates on behalf of the association all projects as coordinator or partner. She is the founder of the Erasmus Alumni Club for students and staff that is a point of mobility promotion and interaction among those who experienced mobility and those who are thinking about it. As a coordinator of one of our members Erasmus mobility projects she was awarded the title of Erasmus success stories in 2012 by the European Commission. She is the board member of EURASHE, member of EURASHE working group for Employability and LLL, EURASHE representative in the VET providers’ expert group of the European Commission and the European Alliance for Apprenticeship, founding member of CHAIN5 and the initiator to the Memorandum on PHE associations’ cooperation in the Western Balkans. Possesses knowledge of foreign languages to communicate directly with foreign partners (English, German, Spanish, Croatian, Serbian fluently). She is a good connoisseur of the higher education and professional higher education area nationally and internationally and has many years of experience in the field of raising awareness of cooperation among all stakeholders and constantly cooperates with the members, employers, chambers of commerce and handcraft, local and national authorities (especially ministries responsible for education and labour), national students’ organization, national quality assurance agency, national mobility agency, centres for vocational and professional education.

Jasmina Poličnik

Jasmina Poličnik

Researcher

Jasmina manages project documentation in accordance to project and programme rules. She has experience in project managing under Central European programmes, ESSR founds, Norway grants and Erasmus+. She has years of experiences as a consultant for regional cooperation. Currently she works as an office manager at the Association HVC and researcher on development of PHE in Slovenia and abroad in current projects (SAPS, ApprenticeTrack, ApprenticeQ, PROCSEE, BuildPHE). She is involved in mobility consortium 2017-2020 as a leader for all KA103 projects (2016, 2017, 2018) and KA107 project (2017). She is also responsible for projects on national level to apply for additional financial incentives to support students’ mobilities.

Natalija Klepej Gržanič

Natalija Klepej Gržanič

Researcher

Natalija manages project documentation in accordance to project and programme rules. She has years of experiences as consultant and analyst at Project Sector and Department for Adult Education of Ministry of education, science and sport and as such a strong contrubutor to the project. She is working under Erasmus+ programme and previously under the Leonardo da Vinci.

Andreja Bizjak

Andreja Bizjak

Andreja advises Association HVC on communication, promotion and media matters. She manages and coordinates all activities related to external communication of the Association HVC and its representatives and is responsible for the visual identity of the Association HVC. As a communicator officer she is also involved in a current project and projects on national level, which focus on student’s career orientation.