The EU co-funded call for proposals will support projects that will help to facilitate the transition of special needs youth to the labour market and allow for complementing and adapting employment rehabilitation services for young people. The call for proposals thus aims to address the problem of reducing the proportion of inactive young people with special needs in the two cohesion regions in the Republic of Slovenia through systematic professional work with young people with special needs and by actively raising employers' awareness on how important it is to employ such young people. This pursues the objective of providing young people with training or education with practical work experience with employers, which will contribute to an empowered career choice. This call for proposals also aims to prevent unemployment after completing formal education Therefore, particular focus is placed on students in the final years of vocational schools and other secondary education. This will contribute to enhancing the social inclusion of young people with special needs and to equalising their employment opportunities.

The call for proposals to co-finance the Youth Transition+ projects is part of Slovenia’s EU Cohesion Policy Programme 2021-2027 and is implemented under priority Long-term care and health, and social inclusion, and pursues specific objective Fostering active inclusion with a view to promoting equal opportunities, non-discrimination and active participation, and improving employability, in particular for disadvantaged groups.

The bulk of the funding for the project, worth 5 million euros, will come from European Social Fund Plus, i.e. 3.35 million euros.

The Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities will publish the call for proposals in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia next Friday, 31 January 2025.