Ivan Svetlik was born on 4 September 1950 in Srednja Kanomlja in the Municipality of Idrija. After completed grammar school in Idrija, he pursued undergraduate and postgraduate studies in sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. He spent further study stays in England and Sweden, where he studied active employment policy. In 1983 he obtained his doctoral degree with his thesis on “Sociological Conceptualisation of Unemployment”. He is married and has two children.
 

From 1974 until his nomination for Minister, he was employed at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. He is a full professor for human resources and social area, and was appointed Head of the Centre for Organization and Human Resource Research. He investigated and lectured on the topics of work and employment, human resources management, education, quality of life and social policy. From 2005, he also worked at the Rectorate of the University of Ljubljana as Vice-Rector for the areas of quality and students. Besides that, he held several other functions: he was Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, President of Slovenian Society of Sociology, the first President of the Council for Higher Education since Slovenia’s independence, and President of the National Commission for the Revision of School Programmes, President of the Expert Council for Vocational and Technical Education, and President of the Association of Human Resource Societies of Slovenia.
 

He is the author of more than 200 scientific and professional publications, mainly in the areas of education, employment, social policy and human resources (Kakovost življenja v Sloveniji, The Profile of the Voluntary Sector in Eastern Central European Countries, Management kadrovskih virov, Politika zaposlovanja, HRM's Contribution to Hard Work, The European Union and HRM: impact on present and future members, etc.). Within the scope of his work activities he developed the studies of human resources in Slovenia.
 

He was appointed Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs on 21 November 2008.