National opening in the Princely town
We entered the 27th LLW in Celje on Friday, 6 May. The National opening of the learning festival is traditionally held in a different location each year. This year, this honour went to the city of Celje, where we raised the starting gun together and launched activities that strengthen the power and joy of learning. These took place all over Slovenia from 9 May to 12 June. In organising this event, the Celje AEC and the SIAE joined forces and created a celebration that did not leave visitors indifferent.
May and June are traditionally months where, with numerous events and workshops throughout Slovenia, awareness is strengthened that people, regardless of their education and age, learn all their lives. By acquiring new knowledge and skills, we grow and develop personally. For this purpose, Celje AEC has prepared a wide range of different events for the residents of the local community, tailored to the needs and interests of different generations. When selecting themes, we relied on the LLW Joint actions and themes 2022. They served us as a guide to what we currently need as a society and the current needs for knowledge and competencies.
What did we offer to the people of Celje?
That we are exhausted by ever-worsening interpersonal relationships is no longer just a myth, which is why we organised a lecture for parents entitled Parenting and Burnout, led by Dr Sara Jerebic from the Family Institute Bližina. She shed light on the fact that we live in an era when overtiredness, burnout and exhaustion are almost constants of everyday life. She presented some techniques for increasing awareness and, consequently, for better stress management. For this purpose, we also organised a Stress Management Techniques workshop, and in the workshop organised by the Red Cross, we presented resuscitation procedures to the participants, which we found very useful.
At the lecture on relations with grandparents and their importance for future generations, Dr Jerebic focused on intergenerational integration. We celebrated the field of culture by visiting the Celje City Theater and also by organising a workshop called Creating Theatre Puppets. We took the elementary school pupils around the premises of the Radio Celje editorial office. We also organised a guided tour of the Tehnopark Celje, one of Slovenia’s most advanced institutes for promoting science, technology and innovation. Since health is the foundation on which we can successfully build different life paths, we held the Fit Spine workshop and a lecture by naturopath Erika Brajnik. She spoke about the importance of proper nutrition for health and well-being in the summer months. Handcrafting also affects health, so we held the Let’s Create with Clay workshop, which was very well attended, and the participants took their products home.
We also included the esoteric field with the workshop What Angel Cards Tell Us About Life. We encouraged fashion inspiration with a practical workshop called Chic in the Summer. We finished the LLW in the hall of Kino Metropol, which was full. “How to Be Okay?” was the title of the lecture. Marketing guru Aljoša Bagola, with his elaborate performance and puns, made sure that the visitors left the event equipped with practical knowledge on how to strengthen and empower themselves after burnout.
Meaning of the LLW
Throughout the LLW, we emphasised the message that perseverance and learning are essential companions in overcoming obstacles in everyday life. This year, we concluded the learning festival mainly with the awareness that the foundations of a healthy society are cooperation, connection and offering support. Such a society can be (co)created by all eager to learn, which is why we are happy about the well-attended educational and practical events and the excellent response from the locals.
Maja Krivec (maja.krivec@lu-celje.si), Celje AEC
