Association of Slovenian student clubs (Zveza ŠKIS)

The ŠKIS association is an umbrella organisation of local student clubs in Slovenia. It represents the interests and defends the rights of 56 student clubs across Slovenia. Since its creation in 1993, ŠKIS has been helping student clubs with their projects, giving them advice and preparing educational workshops for their members. ŠKIS represents the student clubs in the National Student Organisation of Slovenia (ŠOS). It hereby ensures the coordinated development of local student organising. Local student organising in Slovenia is very strongly developed. This phenomenon is quite unique in Europe and worldwide. The vision of ŠKIS is to stimulate people never to stop learning and to encourage independent student clubs to produce and realise their ideas, based on the principle of a non-stop transfer of knowledge. The ŠKIS Association is divided into a political and an operational part. The political part, which deals with the youth policy of social services, culture, sport, higher education, internal and external relationships, as well as the education of activists. ŠKIS BOARDS: International Board The international board strives to connect ŠKIS to other youth organizations around Europe. It promotes international mobility to students and student clubs. It also helps student clubs to develop their own international projects and help them develop international connections. Also we host and send EVS volunteers and take part in many training courses and youth exchanges which helps us develop international connections and develop our staff. Board for Social and Health Services The Board for Social and Health Services of the ŠKIS Association is engaged in social issues that students have to face. The board covers the areas, such as the scholarship policy, subsidised meals, housing, transportation, youth employment and student work, health issues and the subject of young student families. Board for Higher Education The Board for Higher Education of the ŠKIS Association deals with the issues in the sphere of higher education in Slovenia and monitors the actions at the international level. It is focused on ensuring the quality of higher education, affordable public education and the stabilisation of higher education and science funding. Board for Secondary Education The members of the Board for Secondary Education of the ŠKIS Association support the members of younger student sections of the Slovenian student clubs and encourage them to be active. They also promote the creation of new student sections and offer help with their organisation. The Board for Secondary Education informs the public about the happenings that concern the sections. The members do their best to set in motion younger students around Slovenia and motivate them to become engaged in the Association and to carry out the projects when they complete their secondary education. Board for Education Board for Education established a pool of trainers whose main purpose is having internal pool of trainers who deliver trainings and educate activists from all local Student Clubs in Slovenia. Sustainable development, support, help and education of Student Clubs have been our primary issues. Non-formal education is a great part of our organizational vision and mission and the quality assurance of our service is highly valued and prioritized. With high quality training system we aspire to highly beneficial learning that participants can take a full advantage of. Training topics are related to work in local student organizations in order to help them develop competences needed for successful management and leadership promoting development of local communities together with developing personal competences, and key competences helping participants’ future employability. ŠKIS PROJECTS: Škis’ fair The largest one-day outdoor event for young people in Slovenia is certainly the famous "Škisova tržnica" (Škis' fair), which the ŠKIS Association organizes for more than 18 years. It takes place at the beginning of May in Ljubljana. The event brings together more than 20.000 young people who have the opportunity to learn about Slovenia, to hear all Slovenian dialects, try food from all places throughout Slovenia and have fun with the varied program and great music. "Škisova tržnica" is also a responsible eco-friendly event. All the waste is separated and processed on the spot. The program itself is divided in two parts, the afternoon and the evening part. In the afternoon student club presentations are held where richly decorated stalls of student clubs offer local cuisine and provide a real exhibition of the entire Slovenian culture. Throughout the afternoon many music bands and dance groups perform on the main stage. There are also many ongoing fun games and competitions between student clubs. In the evening the student stalls are cleared away to make place for the concerts. There are two concert areas, the main concert stage and the electronic stage. Every year we host the established names of Slovenian music scene, but we also give the opportunity to young promising bands to present themselves to a bigger home crowd. Everybody on ŠKIS The traditional event "Vsi na ŠKIS" was in recent years updated and has now in co-organization with the student club turned into a real "spectacle on snow". It is a sports day full of adrenaline, relaxation and socializing. Young people from all over Slovenia spend this day on one of the Slovenian ski resort. The event begins in the morning with beginner and intermediate ski and snowboarding courses and continues with a varied afternoon program. Participants have the opportunity to learn or refresh their knowledge of ski and snowboard techniques, learn about new developments in skiing and to have fun with good music. All in a bit more adventurous mood can also try to ride with extravagant props, such as snow-bike, "pležuh", snowblade and similar. In the afternoon a parallel ski race takes place, where young people from all over Slovenia compete in a relaxed atmosphere. If you want to win you have to ski with style and entertain the audience. All those who do not want to ski have the opportunity to compete in social games such as paintball tournament on snow. In the evening sports day ends with a party with all the participants and good concert music. Each year over 600 young skiers attend the project. Project Second-hand book fair The event aims at providing better prices for study material, primarily to elementary and secondary school children and their parents. By the exchange of books at low prices, ŠKIS wants to promote solidarity and wants to offer the possibility of a cheap but quality purchase. The ŠKIS Stork For student families. It mostly tries to actively include student families and to draw attention to the problems student families face. Also we present options and benefits they can use. ŠKIS Days of Healthy Lifestyle With this project we try to encourage young people to think about a healthy lifestyle. During the project we organize different workshops and activities. Blood donating week With different student organisations we organize blood donating week that encourages students to donate blood. Project Virus Helps raising awareness about HIV and AIDS on the 1st of December