Executive summary

Since 2000, Poland has steadily caught up with the EU15 in terms of GDP-per-capita and is one of the few OECD countries where growth remained positive during the financial crisis. However, in 2012-13 the economy abruptly slowed down, and employment remains a major structural weakness. Poland has a particularly low employment rate, and ranks poorly compared to other OECD countries on measures of job quality, such as wages and overall job security.

The OECD Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) programme has developed its reviews on Local Job Creation as an international comparative study to examine the contribution of local labour market policy to boosting quality employment and productivity. To help Poland respond to the challenges it faces, the review has looked at a range of institutions and bodies involved in employment and skills policies. In addition to reviewing national policies, in-depth work was undertaken in the first half of 2016 in two Polish sub-regions to assess implementation and service delivery capacity: the city of Poznań and the Radomski sub-region.

Overall, the review found that while many of the necessary mechanisms are in place in Poland to allow local actors to tailor policies to local needs, these mechanisms are often undermined by low capacity and lack of strong “conveners” to bring together public actors with employers to form partnerships for better employment and job creation outcomes. However, successful examples of how stakeholders have overcome these barriers can be found, and initiatives such as the National Training Fund and the establishment of sector councils offer promise going forward. The following key conclusions and recommendations are intended to help build and expand on the recent and ongoing reforms to strengthen the role of local actors in boosting job creation.

Key conclusions and recommendations

Better aligning programmes and policies to local economic development

  • Carefully monitor the reforms to the public employment service (PES) and adjust as necessary to prevent unintended consequences. In particular, attention should be paid to the new system of performance management to reduce incentives to “game” the system (e.g. through creaming), and to create mechanisms to adjust performance metrics based on local conditions and priorities.

  • Improve local co-ordination of employment and skills policies and programmes. Local labour market councils play this role to some degree, but in many cases, lack the capacity, strategic leadership and/or statutory authority to effectively bring together and guide the various actors.

  • Increase the availability and use of data at the sub-national level and build a stronger evaluation culture. Strengthening the capacities and methodologies used by the Regional Labour Market Observatories, using longer-term outcomes to measure the success of labour market programmes, better leveraging data available through Social Insurance Institutions, and enhancing the quality and use of evaluations can all contribute to improving the use of evidence.

Adding value through skills

  • Make the VET system more responsive to local labour market needs, including through better engagement of employers. A key gap identified was a misalignment between the VET system and local labour market needs. Increasing employer engagement at the strategic level (i.e. in steering local decision-making related to VET) as well as in the day-to-day practicalities of offering work-based learning opportunities could help to close this gap.

  • Expand offerings to improve basic skills. While there is a clear need to improve the level of basic skills in Poland, relatively few programmes offer this type of training. Ensuring that VET and training institutions include more focus on improving basic and generic skills should be complemented by remediation courses to reach those already outside the training and education system.

Targeting policy to local employment sectors and investing in quality jobs

  • Focus on improving skills utilisation and work organisation. More attention has been recently paid to questions around job quality, but an overlooked aspect is considering how employers are using skills of those already employed. There may be opportunities for the public sector to use instruments such as the National Training Fund to engage more with employers around increasing the demand for and use of skills.

  • Promote economic development that is inclusive and contributes to the creation of quality jobs, including through more strategic use of public procurement. More consideration should be given to the quality of jobs created through economic development efforts, not just the quantity. Additionally, local authorities could use social clauses in public procurement to promote quality jobs and the inclusion of disadvantaged populations in the labour market.

  • Ensure that adequate guidance and information on career pathways are available to both youth and adults, and that it is informed by local labour market assessments. Most study participants agreed that current career guidance provided to youth and adults is inadequate. Delivering high quality career guidance requires having dedicated and competent staff that have access to up-to-date information on both national and local labour markets.

Being inclusive

  • Address gaps in services for the most disadvantaged clients of the public employment service. While the introduction of a profiling mechanism as part of the PES reforms can help in targeting resources more strategically, in practice, its implementation has created a gap in services for the most disadvantaged clients. Focused attention should be paid to addressing this gap quickly.

  • Improve access to child care services, particularly for children aged 0-3 years of age. Improving the overall availability and quality of child care has been identified by the government as a priority. The significant improvements in providing access to affordable care and quality services will need to be furthered.