Where did you find out about the Direction Employment program?
I found out about the Employment Direction project through a consultant at the Employment Service. Together, we estimated that for me, joining this program would make sense to stay active during long-term unemployment. Because I lacked social contact during my unemployment, it was a little harder for me to work on lectures at first, especially in the field of mechatronics, because I was not familiar with this content before.
How was the programme carried out?
Lectures were held every day, with Fridays devoted to psychological help and independent work. We were able to go to Velenje for lectures or join them via the MiTeam platform. We also found many short lectures on this platform that helped us with our work. I liked the tutorials for relaxation techniques, which helped me a lot. They also gave us practical work in the fields of mechatronics, programming, robotics and entrepreneurship, which I really enjoyed. They tried to involve all the candidates, so they organized group trips, company tours, gatherings etc. On group trips, everyone had some assignment, e.g. on one of them, I took care of the photography and presentation of the photos. Being an artistic soul, I really liked it and found that I know and can do more than I think.
What did the job search look like?
Career planning was a big part of the program, so at the Ljudska univerza Velenje we were linked to a career counselor who introduced us to the opportunities we have and showed us the way to achieve our goals. We started active job searching in January 2022. When we were connected with the staff of a local big company, the HR officer introduced us to the company and employment opportunities, and told us first hand what they expect from the candidate. That was when I started thinking that maybe this is the company for me after all. That was when I also started thinking about my future and what I wanted. I came to the conclusion that I need a job!
What memory do you hold most dear?
Personally, psychological help came in very handy in this process, which gave me the opportunity to talk to expert Helena, who works as a psychotherapist and works according to the method of transactional analysis, personal strength and determination for the future. In addition to psychological help, I was also most attracted to functional Slovene, as I was able to refresh my knowledge of grammar rules and rules for writing texts and letters in an easy and fun way. Nataša presented Slovene in a very different way than we are used to in schools, so the lectures were pleasant, relaxed and therefore productive. So you can see that the lecturer really understands what he is teaching and does it with feeling and love. Lecturer Ajda, who presented Word, Excel and Power Point with great enthusiasm, was always very encouraging and worked for our success. Proud to say that on March 7, 2022, I got a job and I see that talking to Mrs. Helena and the entire team really helped me to regain the courage to continue the challenges. I am very happy and proud to have been a part of the story.