Tomaž Voršič from Kranj

Proposer: Secondary School of Commerce, Ljubljana

Tomaž Voršič is an extraordinarily successful younger participant in adult education. Once a drop-out without any real meaning to his life, he spent his time on the city streets. Now, after his first successes in learning, he has become a completely new person. If before he was frightened, distracted and disorganised, now he is calm and self-confident; he has set himself some real goals and is successfully achieving them through perseverance, thirst for knowledge and consistency. He concluded his training for a qualification in the retail sector with distinction and a commendation and now - again with top marks - he is completing an economic technician's course. He introduces himself concisely in the following way: "I left school and enrolled in the adult education department in Ljubljana because I thought that I wouldn't have to study there! When I found out that I wouldn't get anywhere without an effort, I 'rested' for several years. Then I decided that I wanted to achieve something in life and I enrolled at the Secondary School of Commerce in Ljubljana. I completed the programme leading to a retailer's qualification with distinction and a commendation. Because I wanted a full secondary education qualification, I continued my education in the economic technician's programme. Now I am in the middle of the vocational matura and, if I do well enough, in autumn I will be a student at the School of Business. I see my professional future in tourism." He is open and tolerant towards his classmates. He is always ready to share new knowledge with them. In his contacts with people he acts like a mature, responsible person capable of looking after himself but also able to consider the needs of others and offer them help. He spends his free time playing the guitar, reading books and doing housework. He runs regularly, but the journey to school and back takes him two hours a day, which means that he has had to organise his working day very well and also stick to what he has planned in order to achieve the successes that we have witnessed.