Evidence of the need for such changes can be seen in the success of the Slovenian competitors who vied in seven categories at the vocational skills contest EuroSkills 2014 in France, aimed at young people between 18 and 25 years old. These categories included stonemasonry, woodworking, mechatronics, information technology, floristry, arranging, cooking and restaurant service. Slovenia was represented by 15 young competitors. Sole trader Leon Mahnič of Voglje from the Karst region won a silver medal in stonemasonry, and out of the 400 competitors from 24 countries the Slovenians also received medals for excellence in the categories of IT and cooking and restaurant service. The EuroSkills programme was developed with the aim of promoting excellence in vocations in which there is currently less interest, and so vocational education can be made more appealing to young people.

The vocation of stonemason, which is regarded as a deficit occupation, is not an easy one, but more and more young people are going into it. After decades of the predominance of concrete, plastic and other synthetic materials, stone is once again becoming a prized material. This goes both for users and those who work with it, and making a living from it, and there are increasing numbers of young people pursing this career. Slovenia currently has two schools which provide various forms of education for stonemasons, on the second and third levels of the education scale, with such workers likely to be in growing demand as people learn to appreciate the use of more natural materials and local resources. Stonemasons must master numerous skills, especially in terms of planning, crafting and precision, and in this field it is experience and mileage that count. In addition to performing their basic mission – education – such schools are striving to revive, re-establish and modernise those vocations related to obtaining, shaping, working and using stone.

Srečko Kosovel Education Centre
At the Srečko Kosovel Education Centre in Sežana, students in the post-secondary course materials design acquire training to deal with a variety of craft assignments. Here talented people with a feeling for the materials used, and especially stone, hone their skills. A particularly important factor is the connection between the experts at the school and those who work in the field of stonemasonry. The course is organised in the form of lectures and practical exercises, and is oriented towards practical and creative work. Since it is based on the interplay of theoretical knowledge and vocational skills, it enables the direct application of theory in dealing with specific problems in practice. In each year, students perform ten weeks of practical training in companies or institutions, including abroad, as enabled through international mobility projects. Upon completion of the course, each student acquires the title of engineer of design. It is quite significant that this school’s students can truly become master crafts people, since most of them have been around stone and lived in stone houses since they were small children, and have worked or played in the fields with stone walls that you can see all over the Karst region. After completing the course the graduates take employment in quarries or open their own workshops for hand-crafted stone objects, and in the end one assumes they will also be buried under stone, complete with a well-made headstone.

Anton Marn, principal of the school in Sežana: "Each year around 15 students enrol in the stone design programme, but we want to increase this number by at least a quarter. I think we have already lived through the worst times, and the vocation of stonemason will survive.But at our school this does not just involve stonecutting, but also design and the overall approach to stone. We encourage students to seek the properties in each piece of stone that offer something more, something exceptional.Such a product engages people, it is lasting and extremely important for the pride and status of the buyer."