Cultural Center Črnomelj

Splošne informacije

Institute for education and culture Črnomelj (ZIK Črnomelj) was founded by the municipality of Črnomelj in 1959. The institute was founded with the purpose of promoting development of adult education, cinematographic and culture activities.

The institute consists of two units, namely ZIK – Institute for adult education and ZIK – Culture Centre. Its head office is in the building of Culture Centre Črnomelj, a building of national culture importance, at Ulica Otona Župančiča 1 in Črnomelj.

In ZIK Črnomelj nine people are employed for the indefinite duration and one for fixed-term. Among full-time employees, three hold a MA degree, three a university degree and two employees have a higher education diploma. The two other employees are technicians. Each year two to four participants in various public works programmes work in the institute besides full-time employees; and everyone benefits from these programmes, unemployed participants on one side, as well as providing organisation and the wider public on the other. Each year a lot of work is performed by around 40 to 60 temporary employees, who have the necessary knowledge, skills, will and experience for achieving commonly set objectives.

ZIK is active in Bela krajina region, namely in its three municipalities of Črnomelj, Metlika and Semič. The 69 percent of adult education participants come from municipality of Črnomelj, 21 percent from the municipality of Metlika and 10 percent from the municipality of Semič. It is involved in development of new educational programmes, providing advice to adults, promoting cultural events and development of diverse cultural creativity. The users of its services are people of all ages who wish to increase their education level, who want to learn, spend their time with others and visit various cultural events.

ZIK plays an important role in the environment, because it gives its mark to the learning community. It takes initiatives for new projects, encourages partnerships, contributes to development of lifelong learning programmes, it also emphasizes the richness of diversity, respect for each and every individual and development of the community. It offers quality knowledge, its applicability in real-life situations, and accessibility of education to everyone, especially the vulnerable groups.

ZIK has a more than 50-year tradition which points to its constancy and strong links with the environment and on the other hand its adjustability, since it is constantly accepting new challenges.

In the last decade ZIK has recorded a decline of programmes regarding formal education and an increase of non-formal education programmes and different projects. Therefore now ZIK provides primary school for adults only, but programmes for vocational and secondary education are not carried out any more.

ZIK is also a study centre for higher education programmes: vocational college Inter-es – study program Economist, Faculty of Economics Ljubljana – Business School Study Programme as distance learning programme, Faculty of Education Ljubljana – higher vocational programme of Preschool Education.

Language training for adults represents an important part of ZIK education offer. ZIK is an authorised examination organisation of Centre for Slovene as a second/foreign language at the Faculty of Arts in Ljubljana. ZIK is also an authorised examination organisation of National Examinations Centre for carrying out external foreign-language exams in accordance with publicly recognized educational programmes for adults. ZIK is also organising language courses (especially German and English) for leading companies in Bela krajina.

Computer courses are also performed by ZIK, which is also a verified organization to carry out the certified programme ‘Computer literacy for adults’.

Furthermore, the institute organizes preparations for assessment of knowledge and skills of national vocational qualifications for a Personal Care Worker in cooperation with Dom starejših občanov Črnomelj (Elderly home Črnomelj), and is registered with the National Examination Centre as provider of procedures for assessment and certification of national vocational qualifications for a Roma Assistant and Roma Coordinator.

ZIK is also a verified organisation for implementation of two certified programmes, namely ‘Training for Life Successfulness – My Step’ (UŽU – MK) and ‘Training for Life Successfulness – Challenges of Rural Areas’ (UŽU – IP).

Besides publicly certified education programmes, ZIK also offers general education programmes for different target groups, such as Roma people, older adults (University of the Third Age), unemployed, adults with special needs, immigrants, rural population with emphasis on rural women.

The institute is also developing its own programmes, such as: Workers’ personal development and interpersonal communication, How to become an even better leader, Experiences on your way to success (INPU) and programmes for professional development of employees in schooling and education. In the framework of its activities, ZIK is also encouraging health, exercise and personal growth programmes.

In the beginning of the new millennium, ZIK has become intensively involved in implementation of projects either on international or national level. Project management encouraged ZIK to lively partnerships with different organisations from various fields: education, social work, public administration, economy, as well as with societies. In 2007, ZIK has participated in eight projects (it managed seven of them and was a partner in one) founded by the European Social Funds and national ministries: Ministry of Education and Sport and Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs. Nine more partnership organisations participated in projects in which ZIK was the managing partner.

From the very beginning (1996), ZIK has been a partner and coordinator of Week of Lifelong Learning; in 2009, already for the fourteenth time. Since 1993, ZIK has been continuously organising study circles, a form of learning developing individual potential and socializing.

In 2003, ZIK participated in the project ‘Offering Quality Education to Adults – OQEA’, a self-evaluation model of assessing quality in educational organisations providing adult education. Among the indicators for assessing quality the OQEA model offered, ZIK decided for various fields of quality, especially those in which it wanted to implement improvements.

In 2007, ZIK was given the award for outstanding efforts in developing quality in adult education in the category of educational organizations for adults by Slovene Institute for Adult Education.

OUR AIM
is to offer a reality of lifelonglearning to individuals and groups of people, willing to learn and develop. ZIK (Institute for Education and Culture), is known for its stimulating learning environment, a variety of cultural programmes and rich theatrical activities.

OUR VISION
ZIKČrnomelj maintains the position of the leading centre for adult education the Bela krajina region, by offering assistance and by a variety of other educational and cultural programmes. We take part in European projects that stimulate the development of Human Resources and compensate for the lack of educational opportunities in our region. We create a working climate that stimulates our staff to further develop social and equal oppertunities programmes for learning. We give great importance to cooperating and connecting with our business partners. ZIK is continuously striving to achieve better quality in all fields of education.

Zavod za izobraževanje in kulturo Črnomelj (Institute for Education and Culture Črnomelj) pays a lot of attention to the quality of adult education. We have been trying to develop the quality with a more systematic and in-depth approach since 2003 when the primary self-evaluation POKI, developed by Slovene Adult Education Centre, was carried out. The systematic and in-depth work enabled us guidance in our work by adopting the following

DECLARATION OF QUALITY
With the declaration of quality we bind ourselves to participants of education, financiers and other partners and ensure the following standards of quality:

In or educational organisation we determine the educational needs of different target groups and bear them in mind when planning and implementing the educational process.
We offer the participants a regular insight into their development, counselling and learning assistance during their learning process
We offer the participants various possibilities for independent study and ensure suitable conditions for the participants to take advantage of it.
We establish the satisfaction of participants with the services in our educational programmes and projects and on the basis of results we introduce improvements.
We develop different communication ways in order to ensure possibilities for efficient communication with the participants, teachers and partners in the local and national environment.
We continuously evaluate the organisational culture of our organisation and introduce numerous activities to maintain its high level.
We pay regular attention to the development of quality of work of our freelance workers.
We have developed a co-operation with partner organisations in the local and national environment.
We develop numerous educational and cultural activities to encourage the respect towards differences, tolerance and the development of equal opportunities.
The entire offer of educational programmes and cultural projects is adjusted according to the local environment. Declaration of quality of ZIK Črnomelj was accepted by the ZIK Council on 6th July 2006.

Directress: Nada Žagar, M.A.

Head of Quality group: Irena Bohte, M.A.

President of ZIK Council: Nada Babič Ivaniš, teacher of German and Russian languages