Staff mobility at Academia VSŠ: TV broadcasting and advertising professor Katherine Escobar from El Salvador University of Technology

At the Academia, Short-Cycle Higher Education college we hosted Katherine Escobar, professor of TV broadcasting and advertising at the Technological University of El Salvador. She responded to the invitation of VSŠ Academia as well as of the Technological University of El Salvador in the framework of the Erasmus+ KA107 ICM (International Credit Mobility) staff mobility for the training project.

“As a university professor at the Technological University of El Salvador, I felt honoured to have the opportunity to travel to Europe for the first time in my life. I wanted to see the work that communication professionals do on the other side of the world.”

The agenda promised several meetings with marketing experts and audiovisual producers in the field of mass media and advertising in Slovenia, as well as lecturers from the VŠS Academia. The first meeting was at the Kainoto agency, where the director, Dušan Vrban, explained several campaigns he had been in charge of, as well as his responsibilities and suggestions that could be replicated in El Salvador.

This was followed by a meeting with Tanja Ciglarič, marketing expert for LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, and business advisor to a number of micro-entrepreneurs in Slovenia. They talked about the beginnings of their careers, about the experiences that Ms. Ciglarič’s career experience so far, but above all, Katherine was surprised to learn that many of the practices in Slovenia are similar to those in El Salvador.

After the kick-off meetings, Ms. Escobar visited the local RTV Slovenia unit, where Janez Krušič, a well-known journalist, showed her around the television studio and control room, as well as the local radio station, where the announcers and editor explained their tasks, from the complex, such as sound editing, to the seemingly simple, such as interacting with the audience.

Starting the new week, Katherine continued her training on Monday with a visit to Radio City, a successful commercial radio station. Director Bor Greiner gave an overview of the process of adapting technical and human resources to the new environment, as they have recently changed location and are working to provide the same broadcast time with higher quality and to expand their possibilities by installing facilities where guests can play live music.

The next day I visited the beautiful town of Ptuj, famous for its history and, of course, its castle. I tasted delicious food and enjoyed the company of my fellow Academia trainees Tania and Tamara, who were also kind translators, helping me to understand both Slovenian public transport and the people who spoke to me in Slovenian. In Ptuj I met Miho Masten and the production team of Ptuj TV. It was an interesting learning experience as I was not familiar with the EDIUS editing software, but they explained to me in a practical way how it is used on the channel.

On the last day of my visit to Slovenia, I met Jagoda Đorđević, a very experienced PR representative. Together they visited the VERUS agency, where they were welcomed by Tanja Verhovnik, a marketer full of life and eager to share her knowledge and integrated marketing strategies. According to her, Ms. Verhovnik and Ms. Đorđević and Ms Verhovnik left a mark thanks to their kindness and in-depth conversation about their work.

“Večina strokovnjakov, ki sem jih spoznala med svojim usposabljanjem, so tudi predavatelji na VSŠ Academia. Lepo je bilo spoznati, kako svoje praktično znanje iz industrije prenašajo na svoje študente. Po drugi strani pa so podjetja, ki sem jih obiskala, partnerji Academie, ki jih študenti pogosto obiščejo, da bi dobili vpogled v industrijo. Navdihujoče je bilo videti, kako šola povezuje izkušene strokovnjake s svojimi učnimi programi.”