Pikalo said that Slovenia will have serious problems with a lack of workforce as early as 2035, as the generations of secondary school children were much smaller than they used to be four decades ago.

While the situation has started to improve recently, the numbers are still nowhere near those in the 1970s, when each generation had about 30,000 children.

Next year, around 21,000 people will enter high schools, and Slovenia needs smart education and demographic policies "for us to be able to drive the economic growth and development". "This will not happen without people," he added.

He highlighted the recently introduced apprenticeship programme as a good example, but noted that there were too few children enrolled in it. "We must ask ourselves where the problem is," Pikalo added and asked the employers to work closer with schools to promote apprenticeships.

Another issue he believes contributes to the staffing gap is the brain drain. According to the minister, Slovenia's migration policy is designed so that the most competent people leave while those with low competences come to the country.

"We must take care to bring in people you need," he told the employers.

While young generations in Slovenia are well educated, those aged 55 and more have problems in getting jobs, and Pikalo asked the participants of the event to help find solutions to retrain them and upgrade their competences.

The system in which somebody got educated for a job and did it for 40 and more years has no future, he stressed and added that in the future "we will change several professions".