Slovakia views social enterprises as an opportunity for developing local and regional economies, Labour, Social Affairs and the Family Minister Jan Richter told an international conference in Bratislava entitled 'The Social Economy as a Key Player in Providing Effective Responses to Current Social Changes in the EU and the World'.
Richter noted that so-called protected workshops are the only type of social enterprise aimed at integrating disabled people into the labour force.
"At the moment we're carrying out measures in support of social entrepreneurship with the aim of integrating the long-term unemployed into work ... including people without work and frequently even basic social habits," said Richter, adding that social enterprises could help such people to enter the labour market. This could also help ordinary companies, which have been complaining the most about a lack of a skilled labour force, Richter noted.
