Upper secondary vocational and technical education and training are governed by the Vocational Education Act (enacted in 2006). It is divided into 20 broad technical/vocational fields within which several courses are available. Courses differ in their length (including number of credit points), admission criteria,  options for the continuation of education, level of vocational standards for the specific profession and levels of qualification. According to the new Act all courses must be evaluated with credit points (1 credit point equals to 25 hours of coursework). Young people and adults can acquire vocational qualifications through alternative means outside the formal school system, by participating in the certified national vocational qualification scheme. Adults, who have acquired a secondary vocational qualification and have at least 3 years of work experience, may acquire a secondary technical education by taking a master craftsman, foreman or managerial examination  with the competent association.

The objectives of vocational and technical education and training are to develop key competences, skills and vocational qualifications at an internationally comparable level and to provide knowledge and skills for employment, further education and lifelong learning. All courses include general education for continuous personal development, environmental studies and personal health care. Every vocational or technical course must also contain subjects aimed at: the development of communication skills; the development of knowledge and awareness, learning about national integrity, national identity, one's own cultural tradition as well as other cultures and civilisations, the development of talents and training for artistic expression and perception of arts. Courses must be provided at an internationally comparable level and must enable participants' involvement in the European labour market.

The course structures consist of:

• technical upper secondary education (srednje tehniško in strokovno izobraževanje),
• vocational upper secondary education (srednje poklicno izobraževanje),
• vocational-technical upper secondary  education (poklicno tehniško izobraževanje) and
• shorter vocational education (nižje poklicno izobraževanje).

In addition, to the courses leading to vocational qualifications, the so-called vocational courses are available, which are usually regarded in international comparisons as a form of post-secondary non-tertiary vocational education.  Furthermore, short specialisation and training courses are intended mainly for adult learners and are provided in the form of courses, seminars and workshops. Their purpose is to provide additional knowledge and skills, competences or work experience, which adults need to be more competitive in the labour market.
 
Types and levels of vocational and technical education are specified by the law as follows:

Shorter vocational education courses are intended for those, who have successfully completed elementary school or at least Grade 7 of elementary school or those, who have successfully completed a special education programme, adapted for children with special needs. Courses may last from two to three years (120 credit points) and end with a final exam. Successful completion of a shorter vocational education course allows candidates to enrol into any other vocational or technical upper secondary education course, during which students strengthen and upgrade their general knowledge as well as acquire basic vocational competences and practical skills. They become trained for independent fulfilment of simple vocational tasks, which are carried out in accordance with standardized work procedures and appropriate instructions; or help with more complex work tasks, typical for certain professions with broad profiles.

Vocational upper secondary education courses are intended for those, who have successfully completed elementary school. Coursework is organised either as a full-time course which is provided entirely within schools or in dual-mode (instruction is shared between school and the workplace, provided by schools in combination with employers). Courses last approximately three years (180 to 240 credit points) and end with a final exam. General knowledge and technical skills in the relevant professional field allows students and apprentices to undertake independent work in occupations with broad profiles. Successful completion of the final exam allows candidates to continue their education in relevant technical-vocational courses. Those who choose not to continue their education and enter an employment contract, may, after 3 years of work experience, undertake a master craftsman, foreman, managerial examination, after which they are awarded a qualification of a technician, equivalent to the qualification acquired in technical upper secondary education.

Technical upper secondary education courses are intended for students who have successfully completed elementary school. The courses last from 4 to 5 years (240-300 credit points) and end with the vocational matura  examination (poklicna matura). The vocational matura examination leads to the award of the qualification of a technician, which allows students to enrol into professionally- oriented (1st Cycle professional) higher education courses or higher vocational education courses (short Cycle non-degree). If students pass an additional exam in one of the general matura  examination subjects, they may also enrol into academic higher education (1st Cycle academic) courses, which support this option. Technical upper secondary education provides learners with basic and technical education. Learners are prepared for their occupation(s) as well as for the continuation of their education at higher vocational colleges and professionally-oriented higher education institutions. Students who complete the course are equipped with technical qualifications for the independent fulfilment of complex, non-standard, technologically more complex work processes and tasks.
 
Combined vocational-technical education is intended for students, who have already successfully completed upper secondary vocational education. It lasts approximately two years (120 credit points) and ends with the vocational matura examination. Technical-vocational education therefore provides vocationally qualified candidates with the possibility of acquiring technical qualification and thus gaining access to higher education. If candidates pass an additional exam in one of the general matura examination subjects, they may also enrol into specific academic higher education (1st cycle academic) courses, which support this option. The characteristics and objectives are equal to characteristics and objectives of technical upper secondary education.

Professional fields of vocational and technical education and training are the following:

• electrical engineering and computer science;
• economics, trade and management-administration services;
• hair styling services;
• catering and tourism;
• housekeeping services;
• construction and geodesy;
• wood engineering and carpentry;
• chemistry;
• agriculture;
• mechanotronics;
• design and photography;
• preschool care;
• glass processing  and optics;
• mechanical engineering, metallurgy and mining;
• textile and leather;
• printing and paper science;
• environmental care/ecology;
• health, pharmaceutics and cosmetics;
• nutrition and veterinary science.

Admission procedures are administered at a central level. Students in the final grades of elementary schools discuss their further career plans with their teachers and school counsellors, Students also receive information from post secondary schools, which organise information days for potential students prior to the beginning of the admission-enrolment process. Based on the upper secondary schools' proposals the Ministry of Education and Sport prepares and coordinates public admission criteria for enrolment into post  secondary education courses. The Ministry also administers and manages the candidates' applications and selection procedures. Upper secondary schools can decide to limit enrolment or increase the number of available student posts, after they have established the exact number of applicants. Further selection procedures in case of oversubscription are also managed by the Ministry. Selection criteria include the students past study record, results achieved at national competitions in specific fields/ and special skills and knowledge, which are important for successful education or successful fulfilment of work tasks in a certain profession.

Upper secondary education is provided in schools or folk high schools. If the course consists of workplace training, schools provide the education together with employers in the dual education and training system. In general, schools offer several types of courses of various length in different occupational areas. Schools may vary in size (from 100 to up to 3000 students). School centre, which provide education for a very large number of students, usually comprise several types of schools. Vocational and technical  schools, gimnazija and in some cases also higher vocational education college, they all may be under the roof of one school centre.

Education in public upper secondary schools is free. Students and apprentices from economically deprived families receive school meals at a subsidised price. Students can buy study books or borrow them at school. Schools may charge fees for special services (i.e. administrative costs, special equipment, etc). All vocational and technical schools are coeducational.

Organisation of school

The school year begins on 1 September and ends on 31 August or on 28 February the next calendar year. The duration and organisation of coursework is the same in all courses of the same type. Coursework includes theory lessons and exercises, practical experience, workplace training, extra-curricular activities, excursions and the individual work of students. The maximum duration of coursework is 42 weeks per individual school year with a maximum of 36 lessons per week. Practical training in vocational or technical education may be provided in schools or it can take the form of intensive practical workplace training with an employer or in an inter-entrepreneurial centre, which carries out workplace training for several enterprises. Schools, which provide courses in the field of agriculture, may provide practical experience at the school estate.

Summer holidays take place in July and August and take from 9 to 10 weeks. Students also have the autumn holidays, Christmas / New Year Holidays, winter holidays and the First of May holiday. National holidays are also school free days. Schools provide education as part of the curriculum or the entire curriculum in two groups, from Monday to Friday, with the beginning at 8 A.M. School lessons last 45 minutes. The distribution of school days, school free days and school holidays is specified by the Minister, who publishes the school calendar for each separate school year.

Curriculum

Curricula within different fields are being continuously updated and revised. The last revision, taking place since 2004, reflects the changes that resulted from the development within fields of study. A common characteristic of different curricula is that inter-curricular boundaries are being removed, while new fields of specialisation are constantly emerging. The main aims of the curricula revisions are the following: to improve quality; to reach internationally comparable standards; to integrate students with special needs; the differentiation of education according to actual course requirements and students' interests within the so-called "open curriculum"; the integration of key competences; the promotion of lifelong learning, a reduction of the number of those repeating years; the improvement of mobility of students between different courses with improved links between curricula contents and the implementation of the credit point system.

Course curricula are adopted by the schools in cooperation with social partners, national education institutes, councils of experts, the ministries and the ministers. The ground rules for course curricula are prepared by educational experts working in wide expert workgroups, organised by the National Institute for Vocational Education and Training . However, they must take into account the guidelines of the council of experts, the needs of social partners, international best-practices, directives of the European Union and tradition as well as vocational or professional  standards. Course curricula are then officially adopted by the Minister of Education in consultation with the Council of Experts for Vocational and Technical Education. 

Vocational standards, which serve as the basis for the courses are adopted by the Minister for Labour  based upon the proposals of the Council of Experts of the Republic of Slovenia for Vocational and Technical Education. A vocational standard is a statutory document, which has the following prescribed elements: name and code of the profession, level of education, vocational/professional competences and a description of fields of work, originating from the vocational profile.

Courses may lead to a single or several vocational qualifications. If they are based on a higher number of vocational standards, they are divided into several modules. Each module corresponds to a specific vocational standard and contains objectives, practical and theoretical content and certain key competences as well as all other necessary course elements. Students, who successfully pass a single module but do not complete the total course and cannot acquire a formal level of education, can acquire a certificate of a national vocational qualification. The latter allows them to perform certain work tasks or particular job  within an occupation.

Course elements, adopted at the national level, are divided into structural elements and content elements.

Structural elements of the curriculum include:

• name of the course;
• duration;
• name of the vocational or technical qualification;
• course objectives;
• compulsory forms of testing and assessment of knowledge and;
• admission requirements progression and completion requirements.
  

Specific elements of the curriculum include:

• syllabus;
• knowledge, required by teachers of a specific subjects;
• subject catalogues of knowledge or framework subject curriculum for individual subjects;
• examination catalogues for the final exam or the vocational matriculation examination and
• extra-curricular activities.

Course syllabus consists of general subjects, technical-theoretical subjects, practical training and extra-curricular activities. Practical training includes practical lessons at school, in school workshops or in specialised school classrooms or laboratories or within school estates or work activities, while in some courses practical training also includes work experience. Practical training within the dual organisation of education comprises practical lessons at school and workplace training. Practical training in schools is provided according to catalogues of knowledge, while employers provide workplace practice in accordance with the examination catalogue.

Catalogues of knowledge contain: the name of the subject, the number of hours per Year and forms of the coursework, the guiding and operational objectives of the subject, the compulsory forms of testing and assessment of knowledge and the specifications concerning testing and assessment of knowledge, the framework list of study literature, as well as inter-curricular content.  Examination catalogues are also adopted at the national level and specify: the content, objectives, assessment criteria and study materials. Extra-curricular activities, which are part of the course syllabi, aim to provide students with a free choice and aim to upgrade their knowledge and develop their talents and interests.

According to the new Act (enacted in 2006) each school must prepare an implementation curriculum on the basis of the core curriculum, which specifies the implementation of coursework for a specific subject. The implementation curriculum is adopted by the school council as a part of the school's annual work plan. The latter also includes the team coordination of teachers, the actual contents of the elective curriculum, the distribution of coursework into modules, the organisation of classes (in groups or classrooms) and the flexible differentiation (additional lessons, supplementary lessons, project work and team work) as well as connections with the environment.

In the future, the structure of all curricula should comprise 80 % of prescribed compulsory content and 20% of elective content, within which the content will be specified by the school in cooperation with regional and sector partners. The compulsory part of the curriculum consists of 30 % of total coursework intended for basic contents and development of key competences and 50 % of total  coursework for practice along with vocational theory. General/basic contents include communication in the mother tongue, language communication in foreign language, technical calculus, society-technique-work or social science-natural science-arts and sport.

It is stipulated by the law (2006), that the compulsory part of the technical education curricula includes general subjects (approximately 50%), and technical-theoretical subjects and practice. Compulsory general subjects include: Slovenian, a foreign language, Mathematics, Arts, social sciences (History, Geography, Sociology, Psychology), Information Science, natural sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) and sport. Objectives and general contents in lower Years are the same in all curricula. However, in the later years of study, there are a larger range of available elective subjects and specifically-oriented contents which allow vocational orientation and specialisation in a particular field. In the final year the course finishes with practical training. Coursework in the first two years stress the development of motivation and transferrable practical competences.. To encourage entrepreneurial spirit, autonomy and team work, practice in senior years is planned as team work. In the future, as this structure will be fully implemented, it will enable a higher level of mobility between courses, pre-qualifications and rationalisation of education.

Assessment/Qualifications

In accordance with the new Act (enacted in 2006) the overall rules for the testing and assessment of knowledge, the acquisition of credit points, the accreditation of non-formal education, the final examination rules and the form and content of end-of-school certificates are specified by the Minister of Education. The draft plan for the testing and assessment of knowledge, which is prepared by a team of teachers, comprises different forms (individual testing and assessment and group testing and assessment) and methods of assessment (oral, verbal, tests, assignment, product or service, performance, defence, project work, etc).

Specific rules and procedures of assessment are specified with school's internal rules. Where education and training is provided in the workplace, the employer monitors the training process and notifies the school about students' performance in writing. Nevertheless, the school and the employer can adopt a mutual agreement about the forms of monitoring and assessment of students.

When assessing the knowledge of students, teachers use the prescribed catalogues of knowledge, which specify minimum standards which students must achieve. For students who fail to achieve minimum standards, a team of teachers prepare an individualised plan for education provision, which involves students, their parents and school counsellors.

Teachers test and assess the knowledge and skills of students during the year and during the final exam or the vocational matura  examination at the end of the course. Students are assessed according to the five-level numerical grading scheme as follows: unsatisfactory (1), satisfactory (2), good (3), very good (4), excellent (5). Assessment aims to establish how the student masters vocational competences, skills and abilities. Students participate in the planning of testing and assessment. At the end of lessons or after completion of exams the class teacher decides the end-of-year grade for each student in all of the subjects.

Vocational upper secondary education courses end with an internal final exam. Candidates may take the final exam three times in a single school year at most. Technical education ends with the vocational matura examination. The vocational matura  examination is organised partly externally and partly by the school, therefore it is governed by a separate law. It includes four subjects; two common subjects (mother tongue and one of the technical-theoretical subjects) and two subjects at student's choice. The preparation and organisation of the vocational matura examination is the responsibility of the National Examination Centre, the State Matura Commission and the school  Matura Commissions.

After the completion of education and after the completion of the final exam or the vocational matura examination, students acquire a qualification, which is basically equivalent to the name of the course. The qualification is entered in the school-completion certificate. The new act requires a supplement, containing a description of the course, the achieved grades and the specification of work tasks and functions for which the pupil is qualified.

Students can appeal against their grades in the end-of-year certificates or against the grades achieved during the final exam. Reassessment of the applicant is carried out by a committee also comprising external members. Students may also appeal against grades achieved in the vocational matura examination.

Students, who leave school prior to the completion of the course, receive a certificate about the acquired knowledge and competences, which they need for participation in the national certified vocational qualification scheme. The school, which manages the relevant procedures, is obliged to issue a certificate on the basis of the grades achieved within the framework of the uncompleted course.

 
Progression/Guidance/Transition arrangements

Students progress to the following Year if they receive pass grades in all subjects and modules and if they successfully complete all other specified course requirements. In exceptional cases students can also progress according to an individualised curriculum despite failing to complete all of the course requirements. Students have the right to take grade-improvement examinations, progress and complete the course in a shorter period, and transfer to another school. In the future all students, transferring to a different school, will be able to use their credit points acquired at the previous school.

Students may repeat a year once during the duration of the course. A third enrolment in the same Year is possible only if a student gains the status of an adult learner and pays for the course.

In the future, the modular structure of the revised education programmes will enable students to acquire vocational qualifications, in accordance with their own interests and talents, without having to complete the entire course necessarily. They will be able to end their education gradually by completing individual modules. Each module will provide learners with a specific recognised partial qualification and opportunities for employment in the labour market.

Each school has its own counselling service, which provides students with counselling and -educational and  career guidance.

Teachers

Teaching staff in vocational and technical schools include: 

• general subject teachers;
• technical-theoretical subject teachers;
• teachers of practical knowledge  and skills;
• counsellors, librarians and other technical workers (teachers in adult education courses, laboratory assistants, instructors, organisers of practice);
• master craftsmen, which participate in workplace training.

Teaching staff must have previous work experience, appropriate education and they must pass the Teacher Certification Examination as follows:

• Teachers of general subjects must have completed an academic higher education course (2nd Cycle equivalent to Master degree) in the subject they teach and completed pedagogical training worth at least 60 ECTS credits.
• Teachers of technical-theoretical subjects must have completed an academic higher education course (2nd Cycle equivalent to Master degree) in the subject they teach or the highest existing level of education in their professional field, at least 3 years of practical experience in the relevant field and completed pedagogical course.
• Teachers of practical knowledge  and skills, laboratory assistants, instructors and organisers of practical experience must have completed at least an upper secondary technical education in the relevant field, 3 years of practical experience, completed pedagogical course or a completed master craftsman exam;
• Master craftsmen must successfully pass the master craftsman exam in accordance with the law;
• Counsellors, librarians and teachers of adult education courses must have completed an appropriate higher education course (2nd Cycle equivalent to Master degree)  and pedagogical course.

Teaching staff have the status of civil servants. Most of them have full-time permanent employment positions.