Celje

Celje, Lead Partner of the WEED project, is Slovenia’s third largest city, with a population slightly over 48 000 inhabitants. It is located in the Lower Styrjia region, in the North-East of the country. Celje depends quite heavily on the industrial sector, as 68% of its active population is employed by local industries. Its socio-economic situation has greatly improved in the recent period: the unemployment rate has indeed been reduced from 20% to 11% over the past 6 years. Yet, such an improvement has not had sufficient impact on certain segments of the population, such as women. Celje women indeed much more affected than men by unemployment, as well as part-time jobs and lower pays. In order to address such urgent matters, the city of Celje has decided to take the lead of an URBACT thematic network dedicated to “Women, Enterprise, Employment in local Development” (WEED): it hopes to gain from the network’s activities examples of tools and good practices available in other European cities, especially pertaining to the women’s entrepreneurial capacity.

The main challenges and priorities identified for Celje include:

Improving career opportunities in all areas of society.
Reducing segregation between public and private sector and integrating women into strongly male dominated sectors
Increasing the numbers of women in IT and science and on high paid positions.
Developing training and education opportunities for women in entrepreneurship or with small children or own business (or even both).
Increasing women’s self-esteem within business area.