Roška, Secondary School of Economics, in Ljubljana, has a decades-long tradition of educating young people. It has provided education ever since 1920. We offer a four-year upper-secondary technical programme (ekonomski tehnik). We are currently the best school of modern entrepreneurship, with an emphasis on developing entrepreneurial spirit and creativity in our students. We have also been the school of winners and have become national champions twice by winning first place at the Mladi podjetnik contest (National Contest Young Entrepreneur).
We have adopted a new approach to teaching entrepreneurship by employing an acclaimed d.school method that represents an excellent way of solving problems with prototyping. This design-based approach to problem solving and forming thought processes ensures maximum creativity. By using the principle of “everyone can do everything” and providing a relaxed learning environment, we encourage our students to engage in practical and group work to tackle contemporary social challenges.
We want to prepare our students for life and work in the 21st century, so we place great emphasis on learning foreign languages and give them a chance to perfect their language skills through participating in work placements abroad for free. Modern teaching methods coupled with the practical application of knowledge help students gain work experience sought after by today’s employers. In order to constantly stay in touch with the labour market, we collaborate with different companies and institutions.
The small size of the school provides familiarity and an opportunity for participation to any student interested in developing their talents. We are, nevertheless, large enough for winning competitions. At Roška, we give each of our students an opportunity to find their way and become successful.
The curriculum of Secondary school of economics Ljubljana – the introduction
The renewed economy technician programme, which has been in use for five years, enables greater autonomy for the school and the adjustment of the modules to the main school’s objective, i.e. – Secondary school of economics Ljubljana- the school of modern entrepreneurship. The pupils end their schooling when they pass the external leaving examination called the vocational ‘poklicna matura’ examination, which will be explained later.
All programme units (subjects) are divided in four groups/subject areas:
- General units, Slovene – mother tongue, mathematics, foreign languages, sociology subjects, science subjects (except physics), these subjects are mostly taught in the first two years only, whereas subjects that are included in the ‘poklicna matura’ last all four years.
- Technical/ vocational units: subjects relevant to the ‘poklicna matura’ last all 4 years with other technical modules’ skills relating to them. The curriculum has been designed in a way that all pupils have the same compulsory subjects for the first three years; and when they reach the fourth year, they can choose a subject that they are most interested in. Our main objective is to integrate both theory and practice, thus we arrange our pupils to meet some high profile visitors-entrepreneurs, project days or weeks, etc.
- The open curriculum classes last throughout all 4 years, these classes provide content such as effective learning, business communication, business presentations, the modern image of companies, career guidance and communication, research work, etc.
- The interest activities (ID) and the practical skills at the employers (PUD) are the compulsory part of the curriculum, and both obligatory for the pupils in order to progress to the next year. The interest activities last throughout all 4 years; pupils are provided with current personal, health, social, entrepreneurial and other contents (competences). Practical training is implemented in the 2nd and 3rd year that is 10 days each year.
Progression: in order to progress to the next year one has to be successful in all programme units, i.e. one has to achieve passing grades in all subjects.
Adjustments: we foster the individual approach; in order to help achieving pupil’s goal we also offer them educational assistance (additional classes based on ‘pedagogic contract’).
The vocational matura consists of 4 units:
Unit 1: Slovene
Unit 2: Economics (M1 Business projects, M2 Business administration, M3 Business economics, M4 Modern economics)
Unit 3: Mathematics or 1st foreign language (elective)
Unit 4: Product or Service