University for Adult Education Celje is a public institution whose main task is education of adults. We see the meaning and vision of our functioning in a modern educational center, as we strive to follow all the novelties in the field of education and educate people according to the principles of lifelong learning.
The main focus of our work is to take care of vulnerable target groups in the local community and wider. The Institute educates, trains and provides counselling and support to young people, immigrants, unemployed, prisoners, retirees, etc.
The most vital supporting activity in the field of adult education at the University for Adult Education Celje is counselling. Adults who need our aid are first given help to decide on the appropriate way of education or training, with their progress being constantly monitored. We guide them to create a personal education plan, help with overcoming learning difficulties, give them advice on how to find a job or continue education, help them find resources for co-financing education, etc.
For adults and adolescents who have not completed regular elementary schools due to various reasons, we offer Primary School for Adults. We listen to the participants and try to motivate them to complete schooling as effectively as possible. In addition to elementary school, we also carry out some secondary school programmes. We conduct secondary vocational education, technical education, as well as vocational and matura courses. We are introducing new high school programs and thus expand the activities of our institution. We provide continuous training and education to the participants, therefore we carry out various informal education: national vocational qualifications, language courses, rhetoric, sewing and tailoring courses, computer science, adult music school, drawing school, personal growth workshops, etc. In addition, we organize a wide selection of workshops for retirees annualy, which we carry out within the Center for Intergenerational Learning. We try to provide retirees with as many workshops as possible related to applied skills (language courses, computer literacy, smartphones and mobile applications, online shopping, computer editing of images …).
Since we have a lot of immigrants in Celje and its vicinity, we conduct courses in the Slovene language throughout the whole school year in several primary and secondary local schools. Due to the lack of suitable materials for immigrants, we have also started to develop our own materials for teaching language to immigrant pupils, which is based on several years of experience. Different infrastructure activities are available to participants throughout the year: The Center for Self-Study, Teaching Assistance, Career Corner, Knowledge Exchange … The University for Adult Education participates in some national and international projects. Family centers are a supplement to the social security system in Slovenia. They are designed to help and support the family, bringing together all generations and better reconciliation of family and professional life. Within the family center, we organize child care, parental workshops and support groups for retirees and families with adolescents. With the Youth Workshops program, we promote the development and socialization processes among young people and prevent their social exclusion. Adolescents acquire social skills and develop strategies for individual and group interaction and communication with the help of these programmes. On the grounds of this programme, we help young people to form a positive self-image and contribute to personal and social integration.
The social integration of Albanian-speaking women is a project through which we aim to influence social inclusion through an integrated and high-quality approach, and to increase the educational and employment opportunities of women with language barriers that have a permanent residence permit,Slovenian citizenship and are unemployed, inactive or temporarily unemployable. Based on many years of experience in working with vulnerable target groups, knowing their needs and respecting the personality and dignity of each participant, we create content through which the participants achieve a sense of acceptance, security and understanding, so that they can start building on their own self-image, strong areas and knowledge.
Through the project: Strengthening the basic and professional competences of employees, we try to increase the inclusion of adults in lifelong learning with various content, and to improve the competences that employees need in the workplace and in everyday life.
Every year, we participate in the Lifelong Learning Week, the largest promotion of learning in Slovenia, which takes place in May. With it, we draw attention to the ubiquity and importance of learning in all life periods and for all the roles that an individual takes upon their shoulder. We also want to strengthen intergenerational and intercultural cooperation. For this purpose, we organize various lectures and workshops for different target groups and we aim to collaborate with many partners in our local environment.
In recent years, University for Adult Education Celje has been participating in the international project Erasmus + K1. Key Action 1 (KA1) is a learning mobility project that enables participants to gain a valuable experience abroad. It gives them long-term positive effects for their personal and professional development. This year, we are also applying for the K2 project, which aims to exchange good practices in the field of education. Professional staff of University for Adult Education Celje are attending education and training throughout the year, in order to provide participants with quality education and upgrade the quality, content and scope of our educational activities. We believe that the single right response to coping with various difficulties in our lives is lifelong learning, continuing education and training, which must become our personal guide, as it is the sole way for us to be able to cope with all the challenges and changes that are to come. In the future, we want to preserve the reputation of the House of Knowledge, which is open to all, recognizable by quality and diverse educational offer, and by participants with excellent and useful knowledge and a sound basis for further education.