Association of Slovene Higher Vocational Colleges
Skupnost višjih strokovnih šol Republike Slovenije
http://www.skupnost-vss.si/
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
We want to contribute to good cooperation among all stakeholders (our members, the world of work, students, authorities, national quality assurance agency etc.), therefore the Association HVC is primarily focused on the development of policy and projects in the field of EQF level 5 education and research. BUILDPHE is a project with a challenge for our institutions to analyse connection to world of work and to prepare improvements with a support of best practices from other institutions. This correlation will cover policy and strategy, teaching and learning, research, development and innovation. As Association has already a self-assessment Model for Excellence our goal is to suppot BUILDPHE is a project with a challenge for our institutions to analyse connection to world of work and to prepare improvements with a support of best practices from other institutions. This correlation will cover policy and strategy, teaching and learning, research, development and innovation. We will work with our institutions and partners in development of the methodology, collection of the best practices, preparation of the improvement plans and dissemination of the results.
Our Team
Alicia-Leonor Sauli-Miklavčič
Alicia is the project manager for the association HVC. She coordinated 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
She is working on the project as a researcher and as a support in managing the project. She has experience in project managing in Central Europe programmes, ESSR founds and Norway grants. She previously worked at the regional development agency.
