We were pleased to receive the news that our colleague Tanja Vilič Klenovšek, MA, was also among the recipients of the Award of the Republic of Slovenia for outstanding achievements and life’s work in the field of education for the year 2018.
Tanja received the award for outstanding achievements in the field of development of guidance activities for adults which has been her professional focus since the 1990s. On the basis of the identified needs for organised, comprehensive and quality counselling support for adults in education and learning, she co-designed the concept of ISIO, which gave rise to regional guidance centres for adult education (ISIO centres). With her efforts she helped that they, through almost twenty years of work, were systematically integrated in the field of adult education.
Throughout the development of the centres, she provided professional support for their operation, with great emphasis on the development of professional qualifications of the counsellors, which are the foundation of quality counselling services. She constantly supports their work by developing various tools and aids for their use in guidance activities. She also devotes her attention to developing different outreach approaches, through which various groups of adults from our society, including those most vulnerable, can be reached and involved in education.
Her activities in the international arena are also worth noting. At the beginning of her career, she cooperated mainly with the countries that were an inspiration to her. She studied various already developed approaches to guidance activities for adults. Later exchange of knowledge and experience became mutual. The activity that she developed was soon recognised in the European area and the model of consulting activity was soon transferred to practice in some countries of South-East Europe soon after its introduction. She is regularly invited to various international events and conferences, where she successfully represents consulting activity in the field of adult education.
Her knowledge of the adult education system is remarkable since she has been working intensively in the field of implementation of guidance activity in the education system, while at the same time she participated in the preparation of all the key documents in this field, both at the Curricular Reform of the late 1990s, the White Paper on Education (2011) and the Adult Education Act (2018).
And what could tell more of her work than concrete data?
- More than 200,000 adults were able to find information and guidance through the work of guidance centres.
- 155 counsellors, who also regularly perfect their skills at SIAE, are trained to work in ISIO centres.
- More than 320 different partners both from the wider field of education and human resource development, as well as local policy management cooperate through the ISIO centre partner network.
- More than 80 professional events were organised in the field of guidance activity.
- She co-authored 4 professional guides and over 30 different professional and promotional materials on guidance activity.
- ISIO centres and SIAE have participated in more than 20 international projects on the topic of adult education guidance.
Her commitment and professionalism are also indispensable at SIAE. As one of the four leaders of their units, she actively participates in the development of the centre. We, her colleagues highly appreciate her professionalism and willingness to participate in various activities. She is a warm colleague who is fond of company and with whom we love to socialise.
Let me conclude by saying a few words about Tanja as the head of the Guidance and Validation Centre at SIAE. We have been cooperating for more than 15 years, and during this time, her management has contributed to the professionalism and expertise of all the employees in the centre. She supports us all the time, enables our professional development, confronts us with professional challenges so that we can constantly enrich ourselves and experience personal growth.
Andreja Dobrovoljc, MSc (andreja.dobrovoljc@acs.si), SIAE
