Slovenia

The Act on the Public Interest in the Youth Sector (2010) (ZJIMS) defines youth, the youth sector, the status of youth organisations, financial grant procedures, national awards, and the activities of youth centres. The act also specifies the responsibilities of the Office for Youth and acts as the legal basis for the adoption of a national youth programme.

The National Programme for Youth 2013-2022 is the thematic guide to youth policies and programmes, and identifies six key areas for youth policy:

1. Education;
2. Employment and entrepreneurship;
3. Living conditions of young people;
4. Health and well-being;
5. Youth, society, and the importance of the youth sector;
6. Culture, creativity, heritage, and media.

According to an article by the European Youth Work Agenda Bonn Process, a new national youth programme for the years 2023-2032 will be adopted by the Slovenian parliament in early 2023. Furthermore, "the National Youth Programme will be implemented through a series of two-year action plans."

The Office for Youth within the Ministry of Education

"champions the interests of the youth and the youth sector, acting as the main coordinator of activities in the framework of youth policies and providing comprehensive measures to improve the status of young people in Slovenia."

More specifically, the Office for Youth focuses on enhancing organised, strategically-led, and structured dialogue with young people, improving the quality of youth work, and deepening the understanding of youth.

The National Youth Council of Slovenia (MSS), is an umbrella organisation for youth organisations in Slovenia and the national representative of youth at the European level. The MSS creates youth policies, conducts dialogues in the non-governmental youth field, and promotes and advocates for the development of youth work and informal education.

The Law on Youth Councils (JMS) (2010) regulates the status, operation, activities, and financing of the National Youth Council.

According to the Act on the Public Interest in the Youth Sector (2010) (ZJIMS) youth work is:

"an organised and target-oriented form of youth action and is for the youth, within which the youth, based on their own efforts, contribute to their own inclusion in society, strengthen their competences and contribute to the development of the community. The implementation of various forms of youth work is based on the volunteer participation of the youth regardless of their interest, cultural, principle or political orientation."

The National Programme for Youth 2013-2022 describes the situation of youth work:

"Youth worker is a relatively unknown and only partially formalised profession in Slovenia. The professional profile of a youth worker includes various types of personnel, especially within youth organisations. Youth workers deal with young people in the form of managing youth organisations or groups, project work, information, volunteering, various informal trainings and other professional support for young people."

According to the EU Youth Wiki, "There are no minimum qualification standards for publicly funded youth workers or for volunteer/unpaid youth workers." Nevertheless, youth work has been recognised as part of the National Vocational Qualification System in Slovenia. Furthermore, one priority area of the National Programme for Youth 2013-2022 is "creating capacities for quality youth work and establishing a national system of training and education for youth workers."

The Youth Network MaMa is a non-governmental umbrella organisation that connects and represents the interests of organisations engaged in the field of youth work in Slovenia.

According to the Special Part of the Budget of Slovenia for 2023, the Office for Youth is allocated EUR 3.4 million (USD 3.6 million), of which EUR 2.9 million (USD 3.1 million) is allocated to youth programmes.

According to the National Programme for Youth 2013-2022,

"The national programme for youth will cover a period of 9 years, and will be accompanied by implementation plans (adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia), which will pursue the general goals and direction of this programme in the above areas with specific measures. Each implementation plan will be coordinated with the budget of the Republic of Slovenia."

According to the EU Youth Wiki,

"The amount available for a wide set of measures defined in the National Programme for Youth in 2015 was 169 million EUR (European funds included). The allocated resources in 2016 amounted to 199.6 million EUR."

However, these numbers could not be independently verified.