Mentor group for PLYA at the private institution TIN Ljubljana

Proposer: Dr Sabina Jelenc Krašovec

How do you inspire young people with a broken self-image, without any education or employment, to learn, to join in teamwork and even to appear in public? The mentor group in the programme Project Learning for Young Adults - PLYA, which operates at the private institution TIN Ljubljana, has through its originality and unwavering optimism so inspired the programme participants, that they not only persevered in fulfilling their assignments, but were happy to discover and test out their talents, to awaken their curiosity and desire to succeed, and in this way to organise some well received projects, exhibitions and stage and other performances. "TIN Ljubljana, an institution for education and guidance, was set up precisely to provide a programme of project learning," says director of the institution Vera Nuhijev Galičič. And how do you become a mentor in this programme? Possibly quite by accident, as happened to Mojca Fajdiga. In her home town of Mengeš she was known as an imaginative, creative person, and she was invited to collaborate. The presentation of the concept impressed her and she decided to do it! But here the path of constantly building on knowledge for the needs of the project had only just begun. Each year - like every PLYA mentor - she attends various lectures, workshops and of course regular training of mentors under the Slovenian Institute for Adult Education programme. "The basic method of work in the project is project learning, which means that we deal with subjects and assignments that are of interest to the majority of participants. This kind of learning is not tied directly to school, but indirectly it exerts an influence in changing the attitude of programme participants towards learning: since the content is chosen by the young people themselves, and since they also choose their method of cooperation in implementation and since in attaining their goals - with the professional and moral support of the mentors - they are generally successful, this also gives them an incentive for work at school," says mentor Metka about her experiences. The young people are involved in all stages of the project. In this way they gain not only experience of how to plan work and how to work in a group to achieve common goals, but also how to organise themselves and to experience "how you feel when you do something good and you get some recognition for it!" The projects in which the young people and their mentors in the Ljubljana PLYA have done so well include the theatrical/musical production Adijo nebesa, Homo find home, and this spring they presented Katra. "In Slovenia we need more alternative forms of education like this for people of all ages, since only through education that is different, and most importantly focused on the person and their needs, can we exert any influence on the individual to pursue further learning," Dr. Sabina Jelenc Krašovec from the Ljubljana Faculty of Arts states, with conviction.