Cedefop newsletter

Poland’s VET system builds on a strong educational tradition and a forward-looking vision for a skilled workforce. Poland’s focus on skills training and education reform has transformed its VET system, making it more attractive, diverse, and flexible, and better tailored to learners of all ages and backgrounds. 

Collaboration with stakeholders, one of the key priorities of the European Skills Agenda, has helped Poland to modernise curricula, improve teacher training and reinforce industry partnerships. Sector skills councils and centres, similar to the centres of vocational excellence, address industry-specific needs, facilitate cooperation, and develop specialised skills for students, teachers, workers, and adults seeking retraining, while implementing the concept of vocational excellence in VET.

Employers are encouraged to play a greater role in VET by identifying required skills and qualifications, updating VET curricula, contributing to exams, and supporting practical training. Poland already mandates work-based learning for all VET-oriented programmes, aligning with the new European Commission emphasis on investing in education and training to address labour shortages and demographic challenges, a key priority for the Polish Presidency of the European Council. 

Tailored initiatives for green, digital, and future-proof VET

By tailoring training initiatives to the needs of key sectors, Poland aims to improve its competitiveness and ensure a steady supply of skilled workers. For example, the rising demand from the digital and green transitions is driving the integration of digital literacy and sustainability into Poland's VET curricula. 

Poland’s skills intelligence mechanisms provide valuable information for making informed decisions at different levels, contributing to better-targeting VET provision to labour market needs. Graduate tracking practices also help to enrich the quality and effectiveness of career guidance.

Commitment to inclusion and accessibility 

The future of VET in Poland will also be shaped by its capacity to embrace inclusion and accessibility. The country is committed to creating a more inclusive society by providing access to high-quality vocational education and offering lifelong learning and upskilling opportunities to all, especially for individuals with disabilities and adults seeking new career paths. 

By continuing to invest in vocational education, Poland is not only preparing its workforce for the future but also contributing to the resilience and prosperity of the European Union as a whole.

_{(*) This piece was adapted from the foreword of Cedefop's Vocational education and training in Poland: short description.}

Embedding continuous learning into daily working life is no longer optional. It’s a strategic imperative — one recognised in the European Pillar of Social Rights and reinforced in the new Union of Skills agenda. But ambition still outpaces reality.

Untapped potential

Despite the EU’s strong employment rates, workplace learning remains the exception rather than the norm. In 2020, just 42.4% of employees received employer-sponsored training — a figure that drops to 27.5% in SMEs. Overall, employer spending on training accounts for a mere 0.7% of labour costs.

More striking still, fewer than half of adult workers report being able to fully apply their skills on the job, and less than 50% of workplaces offer substantial on-the-job learning opportunities. This mismatch between skills development and application is a systemic inefficiency Europe can no longer afford.

Beyond classrooms: reframing skills policy

Debates continue to prioritise institutional and certified training — often disconnected from workplace realities. Yet a growing chorus, including the Letta report on the Single Market and Mario Draghi’s competitiveness review, is calling for a fundamental shift. 

Mario Draghi warns: “Without ambitious yet pragmatic skills policies, the EU will not be able to achieve its objectives in an effective and equitable way.”

Cedefop’s latest policy brief, Towards Organisations as Learning Workplaces, makes a compelling case: workplaces must evolve into dynamic, lifelong learning environments. That means going beyond formal training to embrace digital tools, informal learning, and self-directed development — all integrated into the flow of work.

Learning by sector: three models to watch

The brief spotlights three sector-based approaches that offer blueprints for embedding continuous learning in fast-moving labour markets:

1. Finland – Technology Industries Strategy (2021–30): An employer-led approach positioning companies as learning ecosystems, where skills are developed in tandem with innovation — often before formal education can catch up.
2. Spain – Construction Labour Foundation (FLC): A bipartite model built on collective agreements, integrating a national network of providers to deliver formal and non-formal training tailored to sectoral needs.
3. Ireland – Green Skills for Construction: A public-sector-led initiative aligned with climate goals. It leverages a decentralised training infrastructure — including NZEB Centres of Excellence — to deliver modular, accessible green skills training.

A new skills compact for Europe

To future-proof the EU’s labour market, Cedefop calls for integrated skills ecosystems that blend sectoral coordination with cross-sector learning. Employers must move from training facilitators to co-creators of skills development, embedding learning as a core organisational function.

This represents a paradigm shift in EU vocational education and training (VET) — one that does not replace institutional learning, but complements it with real-time, real-world development. The prize? A more innovative, resilient, and inclusive European economy. 

Digital jobs: skills gaps, emerging risks and challenges

Findings from Cedefop’s latest European Skills and Jobs Survey (ESJS2) covering 46 000 workers, alongside EU-OSHA’s ESENER 2024 (41 000 establishments) and OSH Pulse survey 2022 (among 27 000 workers) highlight the profound implications of digitalisation for both skills development and OSH.

Cedefop’s research underscores the impact of digital technologies on job skills and continuing vocational training, shedding light on shifting skills demands, emerging job profiles, and widening gaps, particularly in AI-driven and digital-intensive sectors.

Job automation

• 20% of the adult workforce believe that AI can do more than half of their job tasks.
• Among those already using AI at work, 30% have seen some of their tasks eliminated, while 41% have taken on new ones.
• For 68%, AI's primary impact is increased efficiency, enabling them to complete tasks more quickly.

AI skill gap and upskilling

• 61% of European workers agree that they will need new knowledge and skills to cope with the impact of AI tools on their work in the next five years.
• Only 15% of adult European workers have participated in training to develop their knowledge and skills in using AI tools or systems in the past year.
• However, 44% doubt that their employer will provide the necessary training.

Beyond skills gaps, digitalisation is also reshaping occupational safety and health in profound ways. EU-OSHA’s extensive research on the impact of digitalisation on OSH provides crucial insights for policy development, prevention strategies, and practical applications, addressing both the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation in the context of OSH.

In sectors such as education, where AI-driven tools are becoming increasingly prevalent, new OSH challenges are arising, affecting teachers' safety, health, and well-being. Meanwhile, the rise of platform work—already 11.5 million people across the EU earn part or most of their income through digital platforms—has introduced new vulnerabilities. Platform workers may lack fundamental OSH protections and access to collective bargaining and social dialogue.

Among the key risks associated with digital technologies:

• 34% of companies report increased work intensity.
• 32% cite information overload.
• 27% highlight blurred boundaries between work and private life

In addition, among the emerging risks and challenges:

• AI-driven worker management introduces psychosocial risks, such as social isolation and dehumanisation, by reducing human interaction and weakening workplace relationships.
• Remote work and AI-driven scheduling can reinforce traditional gender roles and stereotypes by increasing domestic burdens on women.
• The use of some types of digital technologies potentially heightens exposure to workplace cyberviolence and harassment.

Towards a skills-based and safe digital transition

For workplaces and workers to fully realise the benefits of digital transformation, vocational education and training must integrate OSH principles into digital skills development. Ensuring that workers receive tailored OSH training is essential for fostering sustainable competitiveness, innovation, and worker well-being.

Together, Cedefop and EU-OSHA are working to integrate skills intelligence and OSH considerations into policies, ensuring that the European workforce and workplaces are future-proofed. The joint efforts focus on promoting safe, inclusive, and sustainable digital work environments, while addressing the digital and AI skills gap, where insufficient reskilling and upskilling risk undermining both the benefits of the twin transition and workplace safety.

As automation accelerates, the EU is prioritising workforce development to ensure workers are both digitally proficient and protected from emerging risks in the evolving labour market.