Slovenia's open business environment attracts talent, but the challenge is not only attracting talent, it is also keeping it in the country or a company and using its potential, was the key message of the AmCham Business Breakfast entitled "Does Slovenia Have a Talent for Talents?". 

Aljoša Valentinčič of the Ljubljana Faculty of Economics lauded Slovenia's openness as an advantage in attracting talent, but assessed that the country will soon have to allocate more funds and energy to developing young generations.

Deana Jezeršek, co-founder and head of studies and development at LanguageSitter, and AmCham top potential of the year 2017, meanwhile highlighted the role of teachers and mentors. "To fully develop talent, high expectations of mentors are crucial: without that the talent's potential cannot be fully developed." She believes a change in education is needed to give a greater role to teachers and professors, whose importance people are not truly aware of: "We should never say that somebody is too good to be a teacher."

According to her, Slovenia is an excellent place to start a company, because there is plenty of know-how as well as good mentors. However, "we're still performing badly at keeping talents here … it seems that we don't know what to do with them". This was taken up by Adecco head Miro Smrekar, who believes that Slovenia does not do well in developing talents and using their potential. "Cooperation among the educational system, companies and society should be improved. We have to be open for various ideas," he said.

Among the speakers were also Maria Melkova, Office Business Group Lead, Multi-country of Central and Eastern Europe, Microsoft Corporation, and Mitja Jermol, Head of Center for Knowledge Transfer, Jožef Stefan Institute. In the role of keynote listeners H.E. Denis Knobel, Ambassador of Switzerland to the Republic of Slovenia and Matej Zavrl, Managing Director, Goodyear Dunlop Sava Tires, joined the event. 

The event was held as an introduction to an international conference Talent Matters.

Mitja Jermol about the Slovenian talent for talents

Deana Jezeršek about the Slovenian talent for talents

Maria Melkova about the Slovenian talent for talents

Aljoša Valentinčič, PhD., about the Slovenian talent for talents

You can watch the video of the whole event HERE.

Photos from the event are available HERE.

Source: STA