“Whoever seeks the goal shall remain empty when (s)he reaches it, but whoever finds the path will forever carry the goal inside.” (Nejc Zaplotnik)
Although it seems that the Slovene economic environment and the current labour force market are not much inclined to young employment seekers, individuals have, with the help of the BTC Campus project, found a way to their employment and the possibility to contribute to realizing the business goals of a particular company.
“We have offered them new views to different ways of thinking that might help them in their personal lives as well as on their business paths,” commented the President of the BTC Management Board, Jože Mermal.
BTC Campus project is a result of a successful cooperation of institutions with the local labour market in the form of connecting experts from the Employment Service of Slovenia, Centre of business excellence at the Faculty of Economics in Ljubljana and the employees and associates at the BTC Company. The BTC Campus training programme started in February 2013. With the first group of 30 young people we performed 12 programme modules in 3 months, through which, according to the president of the BTC Management Board, Jože Mermal, “we passed the factual knowledge and skills onto those young people, and offered them new views to different ways of thinking that might help them in their personal lives as well as on their business paths.” In the time from the beginning of the project till today 3 people have been employed for an indefinite period of time, which represents 10% of all the programme participants, whereas others are also being offered new opportunities.
“Forming the skills to be able to come up with entrepreneurial ideas and realizing them proved to be an exceptionally good “psychotherapy” and an incredible encouragement for a return to an active life,” prof. dr. Dušan Mramor, Dean of the Faculty of Economics.
The implementation of social responsibility into the search and the formation of the individual’s business strategy represents one of the project’s most important goals. Thus, prof. dr. Dušan Mramor, the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, emphasises the meaning of “forming the skills to be able to come up with entrepreneurial ideas and realizing them, which proved to be an exceptionally good “psychotherapy” and an incredible encouragement for a return to an active life.” The dean also mentioned that the project reinstates self-confidence of the currently unemployed people and at the same time “follows the demands of social responsibilities and connects the economy, profession and those who have been resourceful in the given economic situation without employment. This project is very important to the Faculty of Economics since it addresses all its values and strategies.”
Participants of the BTC Campus project have formed their business strategies on the basis of a modern philosophical and methodological approach – D. School with the help of lecturers Rok Stritar, Blaž Zupan and Marjan Kramar. “In its basis it is a very simple, natural and intuitive approach of solving problems and challenges which is often contrary to the approaches that are part of the school system,” commented the D. School method representative, Rok Stritar, and continued: “key emphasis is on empathy, in-depth understanding of the users, creativity, interdisciplinary cooperation and, most of all, quick prototyping and testing the results.
“Each of the participants has a formed employment goal and is aware what they can do in life and how they will tackle it,” said the director of the Municipal Office of the Employment Service of Slovenia, Barbara Vrtačnik.
The role of the Ljubljana Municipal Office of the Employment Service of Slovenia (ZZZS) within the BTC Campus project was to inform and motivate the unemployed, form the appropriate range of candidates to be included in the project and actively participate in the entire implementation of the project. The director of the Ljubljana Municipal Office, Barbara Vrtačnik, defines as the key factor for the success of the project, the fact that “all the participants have gained a lot of new and valuable knowledge, acquaintances, experience and awareness which will help them with the employment or self-employment and their everyday lives. Each of them has a formed employment goal and is aware of what they can do in life and how to tackle it.” The BTC Campus project thus represents a contribution to solving the problem of employment for the young people. The Employment Service of Slovenia has been carrying out programmes of encouraging self-employment in different forms for 20 years. This includes practical and theoretical training, and the subsidies for self-employment. As a result, according to Valentina Zadravec Predovnik, the director of the Employment Programs Service at the Central Office ZZZS, the Employment Service of Slovenia is definitely inclined to such projects as is the BTC Campus project and open to such cooperations also in the future: “We welcome the possibility of training for the unemployed when the employers and other partners can help them with their own practical knowledge and experience to improve their skills when looking for employment and deciding for an independent business or entrepreneurial path.”
Source: efnet.si
