Since in Slovenia it was not possible to obtain a publicly valid education in the field of youth work or a publicly valid act attesting to an individual's qualification to conduct youth work, the national Youth Office called upon the Expert Council for Vocational and Professional Education to act. On 2 June 2017, the Expert Council confirmed the Standards Catalogue of Professional Know-How and Competences for National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) for youth workers.
In June 2018, the Committee for confirmation of NVQ for youth workers granted the qualification to first 4 nationally recognized youth workers.
The vocational profile of a youth worker includes a wide variety of professionals, whose common point is at least one year of work experience in the field of youth work. This experience can be proven solely through reference letters of organizations active in the field.
The Standards Catalogue of Professional Know-How and Competences and the Vocational Standards for Youth Workers clearly define the competences (knowledge, skills, attitudes) that a person must master in order to become a nationally recognized youth worker. These documents also prescribe the ways of testing and measuring the know-how and competences.
Slovenia has finally recognized youth work as a vocation and began professionalizing it, thus allowing the active and until recently self-proclaimed youth workers to obtain also a formal certificate alongside non-formal ones, if they choose so.
