Background information

The instrument aims to improve employability of people most at risk of being unemployed (ie. currently unemployed, people looking for a job and people over 45 years old). The use of the instrument is managed by the local Poviat Labour Office (Powiatowy Urzad Pracy).

Legal reference: Act of 20 April 2004 on employment promotion and labour market institutions (Dz. U. z 2022 r. poz. 690, z późn. zm.)

Content of measure

The Poviat Labour Office (Powiatowy Urzad Pracy) finances training of soft or hard skills for eligible persons. In most cases, the training period covered lasts up to 6 months. The instrument can cover appointment to a training programme, funding of postgraduate studies, loans for financing the training costs and financing exam costs.

The three eligible groups are: the unemployed, selected people who are looking for a job, and people over 45 years old. To receive the funding the applicant has to be registered in the labour office and the office has to decide that training is an appropriate measure to improve applicant's employability.

The scope of financial support depends on a various characteristics of the situation of the applicant. Each trained participant receives a stipend of 120% of unemployment benefit, ca. PLN 1560 (EUR 323). The stipend is lower if the training does not take more than 150 hours a month. Furthermore, an array of other training-related cost can be covered by the instrument. These include transport, medical examinations and accommodation. Public employment services can also give loans to finance training (maximum of 400% of average wage), which should be paid back within during the 18 months after the training.

Training organised by public employment services should last no more than six months (in particular situations, up to 12 months). When an unemployed person is without any qualification, training can last 12 months (in particular situations, up to 24 months).

Use of measure

No systematic monitoring takes place at national level. Sporadic national assessments are conducted by the Supreme Audit Office (NIK).

According to the NIK report presented in 2019, in the years 2014–2017, labour offices throughout Poland most often used activation forms for the unemployed that showed the highest employment effectiveness, understood as remaining in employment for at least 30 days within three months of completing activation, i.e. internships (854,800 activated people), training (510,800 activated people), intervention works (209,700 activated people) and business subsidies (183,000 activated people).

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Unemployed Older people in employment (aged 55+)	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Local / regional government Public employment service	European Funds National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Unknown

Involvement

Unknown

Views and reactions

Unknown

Sources

• 20 April 2004: Act of 20 April 2004 on employment promotion and labour market institutions (prawo.sejm.gov.pl)
• 21 April 2015: Supreme Audit Office (2015), Information about control of effectiveness of training in selected voivodeships (www.nik.gov.pl)
• 17 July 2015: Supreme Audit Office (2015), NIK about activation of unemployed (NIK o aktywizacji bezrobotnych) (www.nik.gov.pl)
• 01 November 2015: PES Katowice (2015),  Effectiveness of training in Slilesia Voivodeship (wupkatowice.praca.gov.pl)
• 01 December 2019: Mazowieckie Labour Market Observatory (2019), Competences of the future on the Masovian labor market in the perspective up to 2040 (obserwatorium.mazowsze.pl)
• 01 July 2020: PES Rybnik (2019), Analysis of the effectiveness and efficiency of training competed in 2018 (rybnik.praca.gov.pl)