The Slovenian office of AIESEC has a long history dating back to 1953. At that time it was a part of AIESEC in Yugoslavia. After Slovenia got independent as a country in 1991 it was also the AIESEC office that separated from the Yugoslavian. This happened in 1992 when AIESEC in Slovenia became accepted into the AIESEC network as an independent entity.

1950s - Establishment of AIESEC in Yugoslavia

In 1953 there were 18 countries in the AIESEC network, all of them were Western capitalist states. While working in another student organization, Srečko Jamnišek, a student of Economics, found out that the Western European students of Economics have their own international organization called AIESEC. Immediately he started establishing mail and telephone contacts with AIESEC International.
Gaining the support of the Students of Economics of Yugoslavia was crucial to establish AIESEC in Yugoslavia. In the beginning of 1953 a conference of all the Faculties of Economics in Yugoslavia was held in Skopje, where it was decided that Yugoslavia should start the process of joining AIESEC International Network. Srečko Jamnišek was elected as the fist President of AIESEC in Yugoslavia and the one responsible to make of this vision a reality.
While the Communist party of Yugoslavia allowed technical students to go abroad through IAESTE, they were worried that the students of economics might "get infected" with the capitalist ideas if they went to internship through AIESEC. This resulted in the meeting called by the Communist party of Yugoslavia and the Central Committee of Student's Association of Yugoslavia. The meeting with 400 delegates of these parties was held on Belgrade's Faculty of Economics where the justification for the st udents of Economics becoming the part of AIESEC was discussed. The Party officials thought they would be having an easy time with the students, but it was not the case. The desire to go abroad was so strong, that the students did not want to submit to the Party's demands. Their main argument against AIESEC was that Srečko Jamnišek was too young and had no diplomatic experience. The Party knew that if they got rid of Srečko, AIESEC would not be able to find another appropriate candidate with foreign language skills who would be able to go to the 5th International Congress in Nuremberg. Simo Dulović, who hosted the meeting was Srečko's schoolmate. He interceded in Srečko's favor saying: "I've known Srečko for couple of years, and i fully trust him, that he is the right person to do his job well in Nuremberg. Please raise your hands if you support the idea of Yugoslavia joining the AIESEC network!". All the 400 delegates on the meeting raised their hands, some even both of them. Joining Srečko in Nuremberg was also Gusti Zadnik, who very successfully cooperated in Slovenia ensuring the companies to take foreign students to internship.
In spring of 1953 the 5th International Congress of AIESEC was held in Nuremberg, where AIESEC in Yugoslavia was officially accepted as the member of AIESEC network. But again, not without complications. The founding member countries were all West European. Just as much as the Yugoslav government was afraid of AIESEC bringing the capitalist ideas to Yugoslavia, the founding member countries of AIESEC were afraid of the communist ideology spreading to the West through AIESEC. Before Yugoslavia got accepted into the network hundreds of questions had to be answered, such as the plans of studies, ideologic background of the specific subjects on universities, professors, study literature, etc.
On the 6th International Congress in Rotterdam, AIESEC already had 1000 exchanges globally, 100 of those were secured by AIESEC in Yugoslavia. But it was not easy to go abroad at the time. People who wanted to travel to the West needed a special permit that was very hard to get. Very few people at that time even had passports. The only exceptions were the football players and other successful sportsmen. Those who got a passport and the permit were the lucky ones that everyone envied. One of the main issues at that time was the students who were not able to speak English well as the foreign languages were not a part of the curriculum of the Universities in most of Yugoslavia.

1960s and 1970s - Local expansion in Maribor and Kranj

In Slovenia the Local Committee was established in Maribor in 1962. On International level the computer program to realize exchanges called MATCH was developed in 1967 and used in 1969 for the first time.
In 1974 a Local Committee was established in Kranj in the Faculty of Organizational Sciences.

1980s - The End of Unity in Yugoslavia

In 1985 around 45 exchanges were done in Ljubljana, and 6.000 globally. In Yugoslavia the student's demand for an internship abroad was huge, which enabled the selection criteria to be very strict. The students got the highest number of points in the selection process if they were members of the Socialist Party's movements, so those did not have any trouble getting through the selection. On the national AIESEC meetings in Yugoslavia a lot of the tension could already be felt between the Republics, mostly between Belgrade and Zagreb. It became apparent that Yugoslavia as a country would slowly come to an end. On international level, a computer program called TARGET was developed in 1989 to realize exchanges more effectively.

1990s - Slovenia's Independence

In 1991 the agreement was reached in Bohinjska Bistrica for AIESEC Slovenia to become an independent entity from AIESEC in Yugoslavia.
On the 44th AIESEC International Congress in Budapest in February 1992, AIESEC in Slovenia officially became the 74th member country in the AIESEC network and an independent entity from AIESEC in Yugoslavia. A legendary project called Top Job was organized for the first time. The knowledge in Local Committees existed from the times of Yugoslavia, but with no knowledge and no office the National Committee of Slovenia had to be started from scratch. The national leadership had a hard time adopting to this new reality. Instead of nineteen local committees there were only three. A compendium had to be rewritten and a new organizational structure had to be established. A lot of help was received from AIESEC in Germany and AIESEC International. Many members left AIESEC in Slovenia at the time. A National Committee was temporarily working in the Locql Commitee of Maribor even though the headquarters was in Ljubljana. The results of that year were not high, but a good basis for the following years was established.
In 1993 AIESEC in Slovenia celebrated its 40 years. Together with AIESEC in Germany an EUNOC (European and North American Conference) was organized which was attended by 250 delegates. The fourth Local Committee was formed in Piran. From 1994 to 2000 many projects were organized such as Stock Exchange Seminar (Mali borzni seminar), seminar about Marketing in tourism, International Leadership Seminar, Management Seminar, etc. Many of those projects were not based on exchange therefore had to be shut down in 2000.
On the AIESEC International Congress 1997 a revolutionary internet information system called INSIGHT was launched that empowered the global cooperation and exchange. Members of AIESEC in Slovenia were recognised as experts for implementation support both as Global Help Team members and especially through selection of a member from Slovenia into team of three Insight International Directors, whereby Slovenia was responsible for support for both Africa and Asia-Pacific region.
In 1998 AIESEC Slovenia held the 45th anniversary celebration in Cankarjev Dom in Ljubljana.
As a result of changes in exchange starting in 1997, by 1999 AIESEC in Slovenia was the best country in the world regarding exchange realisation numbers per LC while at the same time being recognised as an opinion leader and developer in area of exchange. Although there were only 4 LC's AIESEC Slovenia was one of the 20% of AIESEC countries that together generated 80% of all exchange results in the preceding year, together with many much larger countries such as USA, Germany, Turkey and others, while other 80% contributed to approx. 20% of all global results.
In 2003/2004 term, AIESEC in Slovenia celebrated the 50th anniversary on Ljubljana's Castle. The President of the Republic of Slovenia and alumnus Janez Drnovsek was the key speaker. More than 100 alumni attended the event.

AIESEC in Slovenia today

Right now AIESEC in Slovenia has got 3 Local Committees in Ljubljana, Kranj and Maribor. Our members are working in many projects from which three are organized in all Local Committees: Speak UP!, IT Days and Cultural Connections. Speak UP! is a project delivering students opportunity to meet foreigns and to learn with them foreigns languages. IT Days project is connecting students and companies environments interested in IT. Companies are delivering free workshops about IT to students and also allowing them to take internship in their comapnies to get experience there. Cultural Connections is a project run with inerns from abroad in elementary schools to present other cultures and build tolerance among young Slovene. To know more about what is going on in AIESEC in Slovenia, you can contact the National Board. If you are Alumni you will find more informations in Alumni section.