The new university was successful in the public tender “Strengthening the role of career centers in the holistic treatment of students”.

The subject of the public tender is the co-financing of the further operation and upgrading of the career centers of higher education institutions by promoting adapted forms of assistance to special groups of students.

Among the special groups of students we include students with a special status, students with special needs, students in distress that may have a negative impact on mental health, students who are subject to violence, which means interference with a person’s physical and psychological integrity (domestic violence, sexual violence , sexual harassment, bullying or mistreatment, etc.), students with caring responsibilities, students with other personal circumstances and other non-traditional groups of students. Traditional students are students who enter higher education directly after finishing high school, while non-traditional students are those students who have already entered the labor market and often have a family, which represents for them an additional coordination of student and private life (due to family or taking care of parents, etc.).

The public tender includes three activities:

Training and education for career counselors

1. Establishing a network of individuals who have the experience and knowledge to work with students of special groups, with the aim of exchanging experiences and imparting knowledge to employees of a higher education institution.
2. Organization of events aimed at acceptance and understanding of differences.

Establishing a system for identifying special groups of students and their support needs

The activity focuses on the ability to identify specific groups of students who would need special or additional help and special treatment in order to offer support during their studies. The beneficiary must establish a working group that will work professionally and, by determining and directing activities, help to establish a system for identifying special groups of students. At the end of the projects, an established system is expected, and the beneficiary must prepare a document describing the established system and recommendations or defining incentives for their inclusion.

Support for special groups of students

In addition to the basic mission of the career centers, i.e. offering career counseling to all undergraduate and postgraduate students, the activities will also include:

1. raising awareness of all students about the importance of equal treatment of all students regardless of gender, race or nationality, religion or belief, disability, age, sexual orientation or socio-economic status, and raising awareness among students about any kind of violence that constitutes interference with a person’s physical and psychological integrity ( domestic violence, sexual violence, sexual harassment, intimidation or abuse, etc.)
2. support in the form of counseling, training, or in another appropriate form of special groups of students who come in contact with a career center because they need help in study or facing distress that can adversely affect mental health at both individual and indirectly through public available information (remotely, websites, social networks, etc.).
3. counseling for students includes career path counseling for special groups of students, with an emphasis on the appropriateness of the chosen/desired study path in relation to the individual needs/abilities of the student.
4. cooperation with secondary schools, namely with counselors, is foreseen, with the aim of informing about the special needs that students have in terms of education when they enter higher education.
5. the activity includes cooperation with institutions that cover the field of work with young people with special needs, or that can in any way contribute to the more successful work of higher education institutions with special groups of students.

Pupils, students and graduates are invited to participate in all activities within the project, which are free of charge. For counseling options, please contact the staff of the NU Career Center and its members via e-mail: kariernicenter@nova-uni.si and make an appointment for counseling. All activities within the framework of the project Strengthening the role of CC in the holistic treatment of students are designed in such a way that their continuous and permanent implementation will be enabled even after the end of the project.

The public tender for the selection of operations is partially financed by the European Union, namely from the European Social Fund. The operation is carried out within the framework of the Operational Program for the implementation of European cohesion policy in the period 2014-2020, priority axis: 10. Knowledge, skills and lifelong learning for better employability; priority investments: 10.1 Improving equal access to lifelong learning for all age groups in formal, informal and informal forms of learning, updating the knowledge, skills and competences of the workforce and promoting flexible forms of learning, including through career counseling and validation of acquired competences, specific objective: 10.1 .3 Promotion of flexible forms of learning and support for quality career orientation for young people in school at all levels of the education system.