Second International Symposium on CAREER DEVELOPMENT & PUBLIC POLICY Vancouver, British Columbia March 5th & 6th, 2001

COUNTRY PAPER REPUBLIC OF POLAND

Author - Wojciech Kreft, The Association of School and Vocational Counselors of the Republic of Poland

Back Introduction

Due to the short period of time /only 5 days/ available for the preparation of the present study it has become more a description of the actual situation in Polish vocational guidance, in the aspect of career development, than an accurate analysis made according to the five points you have assumed. In my study, I make use of materials from the governmental monographs such as The National Strategy for Employment and Human Resources Development 2000-2006 as well as the materials prepared within the programs related to Polish accession to the European Union. I hope I will be able to present, even partially, the picture of relationships between career development and the public policy in Poland.

Labour market - transformations

The last decade was a period of dramatic change for the Polish labour market. The observed trends were the results of: the economic collapse at the beginning of the decade, impact of the world economy, economic policy pursued, as well as long-term transformations in the economy and its institutions. At the threshold of the 1990s, the Polish economy distinguished itself among other Central and East European countries with three characteristics 5 . First, inefficient and internally contradictory economic system, with a very weak position of the government, and dispersed property rights in state enterprises among self-management councils and trade unions. Second, the obsolete economic structure characterised by a large share of employment in agriculture and industry, with simultaneous underdevelopment of the service sector, as well as the domination of large enterprises and poorly developed sector of small and medium-sized companies. Third, poor integration with the world market. In the beginning of the 1990’s, economic stagnation and profound shortages were accompanied by a permanent inflationary pressure (consumer prices in the 4th quarter of 1989 were 5.5 times higher than the prices at the end of 1988) not experienced in other countries, as well as the difficulty of repaying foreign debt.round

So, the Polish labour market has to been subject to very powerful transformations during the past ten-year period. As a result it has become similar to labour markets in the EU; the introduction of market principles to the allocation of labour has had overall positive results, it was nevertheless accompanied by side effects, most significantly unemployment. The transformation sought to give companies and labour resources greater freedom of decision and greater leeway in how they can interact for their mutual interests. The transformation also means the construction and development of labour market institutions as well as the development of policies shaping their functioning. The years 1994-98 were characterised by systematic changes in each of these spheres. These changes were not so rapid as in the first period of transformation. Problems connected with labour utilisation in the economy were revealed rather gradually and attempts were made to solve them gradually.

1 Demographic trends

Demographic processes in Poland in the transition period were characterised by the following main trends: (1) increase in total population, (2) change in the population structure by age (3) end of the long process of shortening the average life of men and women (4) drop in fertility. Population increased by 670,000, that is by 1.8 %, and the working age population (15-64 years) by 1,662,000 that is by 7.0 %. Such changes in the age structure are characteristic for Poland – successive wars resulted in generation gaps, while post-war periods brought about an increase in the number of births. Therefore a specific effect of “population waving” is observed in definite age groups. Increase in working age population was not either steady – population of the youngest group, i.e., between 15-24 increased by 1,214,000, while in the oldest group – those between 50- 64 decreased by 133,000. Changes in the working age population must have had an impact on the labour supply – saw an increase in the younger age group and a decrease in the older group.

Development of vocational orientation and career guidance

The Vocational Orientation and Guidance System has a very important, but very often forgotten role within the whole education system, especially in training the unemployed and any future training needs. In a situation of quick changes on the labour market – new challenges, new free market economy, people’s knowledge and experience of education and carrier opportunity is completely “out of date”. In Poland, until 1989, had no system of vocational guidance and counselling. The present system consists of two elements:

The present system of vocational guidance consists of two subsystems: 1. Subsystem of vocational orientation and guidance for youths, which is supervised by the Ministry of National Education. There are 596 institutions of vocational orientation and guidance functioning all over the country. Those institutions are into recognising the predispositions of primary and secondary school pupils in order to help young people to choose a job. They also support schools in the field of methodology and materials orienting pupils about types of vocations and schools. There are 976 people employed in institutions of vocational orientation and guidance for youths. The cadre of vocational counsellors consist mostlyof psychologists (531 persons) and pedagogues (399 persons). The remaining 46 persons represent different professions. In the school year 1997/98, the institutions of vocational orientation and guidance for youths organised training sessions for 245,707 primary school pupils and 30,954 secondary schools pupils 81 . Especially important is the fact that specialistic help was provided to 40,173 pupils with various disorders and health problems. The vocational orientation and guidance for youths has a limited range of influence and does not cover all the young people requiring its help. The main drawbacks of this subsystem are: not sufficient amount of the cadre and lack of a teacher-vocational counsellor in the primary school structure. 2. Subsystem of vocational guidance for adults who are unemployed and seeking jobs is functioning at labour offices and is co-ordinated by the National Labour Office, under the supervision of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.

The realization of the conception of the network of the vocational guidance services in the Labour Offices has been carried out at first by the growth of the number of vocational counselors in the Labour Offices. In January 1993 in the Labour Offices there were employed 64 counselors, in December of that year the number was 237, at the end of year 1994 the number increased to 316, in July of 1997 it mounted to 489 counselors. The number of employed vocational counselors in 1999 was equal to 582 people.

2 To organise and enhance the system of the of the vocational guidance in the Labour Offices there have been realised the following tasks: 1. Preparation and implementation of: "Basic Rules of Functioning of the Vocational Guidance" and " Regional Programs of the Development of the Vocational Guidance" Within the discussed period there was observed a growing professionalism of the cadre of the vocational counselors, realized in the following forms:  Post graduate studies in the professional knowledge and vocational guidance.  Long and short period training as well as multi- stage training for all vocational counselors in Labor Offices carried out by Polish lecturers and foreign experts.  Annual training conferences for vocational counselors.  Guided self-education on the basis of the series of "Vocational Counselor's Methodical and Informational Exercise Books", prepared at State Labor Office, as well as manuals and guides. 2. The work places for vocational counselors have been equipped with modern work methods, multi- media data bases and technical equipment, which were achieved by:  Gaining, adaptation and implementation of foreign methods of the individual and group vocational guidance (including: advisory discussions, educational method, inspiration courses, psychological tests of the vocational estimation.  Preparation and distribution at the Labour Offices the profesional data base such as:  "Professional information portfolio" - according to German method  Collection of leaflets  Collection of professional films - adapted German collection.  Preparation of the conception and implementation of the institutional forms of dissemination of vocational information and counselors services at Labour Offices, i.e. creation between 1995 and 99, of 50 Vocational Information and Career Planning Centers as well as Mobile Vocational Center in Warsaw, having which now is of stationary character and is working within Methodological Center of the Vocational Information of the State Labour Office. Methodological Center has its branches in Gdańsk, Katowice and Toruń.  Opening of 248 Vocational Information and Group Advisory Services all over the country.  Preparation of multimedia software supporting vocational guidance "Adviser 2000". This software is now used by clients in 538 Labor Offices. The result of these activities is the increase of the accessibility of the professional vocational guidance services at Labour Offices seen in the growing number of people (the unemployed, the people looking for work, or graduates of elementary and grammar schools) that have received vocational advise, from only 150 000 in 1993, to more than 727 000 in 1998.

The activities of counsellors include providing information and vocational advice concerning possibilities of employment, training and upgrading qualifications as well as individual consultation regarding the strengths and weaknesses of a client and organising group training. Vocational counsellors play a special role in the process of providing help to the long-term unemployed, using in this case appropriate work methods (e.g. “Inspiration training”, “Educational method”) and resources of information about vocations and the labour market. Gradual improvement of counsellors’ work quality due to modernisation of vocational guidance practice and continuous professional development of this vocational group can be considered as an especially positive phenomenon. In 1999, American interest and apitude tests were adapted to Polish culture in order to enrich the counsellors’ means of work. The next example of widening the offer of vocational guidance services at the labour offices is establishing a network of 12 Centres for Vocational Information in 1997 and starting the following 38 Centres in 1999. The both subsystems are functioning independently, using different guidance practices, which do not fully cover all people requiring help. That is why, it is so essential to ensure common access to vocational guidance for young people, in consideration of a high unemployment rate in this

3 category. The integration of guidance of the education department and the labour department in order to eliminate the dispersion of efforts in this field becomes an urgent need.

Vocational education and training systems - general status

The educational system in Poland is, so far, not fully structured to help meet the needs of the new economic situation. Reform of the Polish educational system has been acknowledged for many years; the first reforms of the system were initiated very early. But these reforms were only partial in character, and their effect had a too limited an impact on the changing labour market situation. In order to improve the impact of education on the labour market, wide scale education reform was initiated. The following are the objectives of such reform:  popularisation of secondary education and increase in the number of those undertaking higher studies,  increasing access to education at all levels,  strengthening the guidance function of schools by properly proportioning attention directed to passing on knowledge, skills development and personal development,  binding schools with the family and local environment. As a final effect of the reform, the improvements of qualifications and an increase in employability of labour resources are expected. The right to education in Poland has been guaranteed by the Constitution, which provides for the compulsory schooling up to the age of 18. The State and its agencies, including the Commissioner for Civil Rights protect the right to universal and equal access to education. This principle is implemented to a considerable degree. Worth mentioning is a significant change in the education ratio as related to tertiary level education: it increased by 100% over the years 1990-98. It is all the more important that, the unemployment rate of persons with higher education over all the transition period has been maintained – on average – at a level below 1/4 of the average unemployment rate. Connected to this phenomenon, demand for educational services (both public and private) grew. As a result of this, the number of youth with high education is larger.

Labour market - some conclusions

The Polish labour market still faces restructuring challenge which relates mainly to the restructuring of certain industrial branches (i.e., coal mining, metallurgy, energy production, the arms industry, the shipbuilding industry), rail transport and – above all – agriculture. Industrial restructuring programs have already been adopted. They are expensive and for this reason are being introduced gradually. Nevertheless, no program of budgetary sphere restructuring has been initiated, particularly as concerns education and health care. The reforms initiated go only a small way towards solving the problem of employment rationalisation. The restructuring of agriculture occurs from the grass- roots level (bottom-up), through manpower outflow to gainful employment outside agriculture. This flow is partly not registered (it supplies the grey sphere), and partly consists of combining two jobs (usually one in agriculture and one outside agriculture), but it is a constant trend. However, a problem emerges of linking this outflow to raising the productivity and incomes of people who remain in agriculture. Employment restructuring will remain an important and difficult problem for many years. In Poland, there exists large regional difference in unemployment. These differences show the low territorial mobility of the manpower, the low inflow of capital to regions with high unemployment (also to regions with high hidden unemployment in agriculture), and ineffective labour market policies. To change this situation, hitherto existing principles of PLMP (Passive Labour Market Policy) and ALMP (Active Labour Market Policy) should be revised in such a way as to increase incentives and opportunities for employment. Also, breaking down regional labour imbalances is only possible if labour policies go hand in hand educational policies. Analyses of the

4 attractiveness of different regions for investment show that labour force qualifications are largely decisive for job creation. The increasing differences in the risk of unemployment and in the wage level depending on qualifications, has become a strong incentive to acquire higher levels of education. The share of young people attending secondary and higher schools has considerably increased. However this does not apply equally to youth from all sections of Poland. The source of this inequality lies in the amount of public expenditure spent on education. An educational gap exists between the young people from low-income environments, who are characterised by an absence of educational aspirations, and other groups of youth. Low levels of qualifications are reproduced to a certain extent in rural areas and small cities. This is a crucial problem, because low skills are a barrier to restructuring employment. However, the educational level of many young persons entering the labour market is clearly higher than that of older people. This provides an opportunity to ensure the growth of labour productivity and labour force mobility, and to contain structural unemployment. A greater risk of unemployment and lower wages are characteristic for the situation of women on the labour market. Their return to employment after a maternity break is particularly difficult. At the same time, women in Poland are better educated than men and account for a considerable part of labour resources. Due to the low popularity of part-time employment, privatisation has become a serious challenge for women. In private companies people work longer hours and more intensively than in public ones, thus it is difficult to combine this work with the traditionally extensive scope of family responsibilities. It seems that the difficulty of balancing traditional family responsibility and the demands of private enterprises is one factor for the worsening situation of women on the labour market, although discriminatory behaviour by employers is not uncommon. Active labour market policies are made up of more and more complex programs. The decentralisation of these policies (conducted together with the administrative reform of the country) creates the basis for a better adjustment of ALMP to local labour markets. In previous years local authorities were mainly interested in the development of public works. However, this program was completely unsuccessful, as it did not lead to the unemployed acquiring permanent employment. There is a risk that objectives other than the creation of employment (in the case of public works – the construction of the infrastructure) will dominate the activities of local authorities. Whereas ALMP demands enhancing the long-term efficiency, as around 70% of the newly registered unemployed were formerly unemployed in previous years. Therefore, the labour market policies do not sufficiently protect against segmentation of the labour market. Perhaps the most important adjustment has been the increase in human capital resources. The increase in education and mass retraining have been largely automatic processes, and the role of government policies in their development has been rather modest. However, these changes should be appraised as decidedly positive. These changes also indicate a process of labour market adjustment for Poland to help it move towards integration with the EU markets.

Goverment recommendation for the policy of unemployment counterwork - NEW!

On the session of January 16th 2001 the Council of Ministers has accepted the recommendations for the unemployment counterwork policy - the need of the prompt introduction of the of the following activities relating to: 1. Creation of new workplaces  Activities enabling small and medium firms to gain access to the external sources of financing,  Support to the self-governments' activities aiming at improvement of the conditions for the individual businesses and creation of new workplaces in the villages.  Customs clearance tightening,  Activities for the development of the housing. 2. Professional qualifications upgrading:  Development of the training forms of the subsidized employment;  Encouragements for the continuation of the education in forms of grants and scholarships, especially for young people from rural areas;

5  Concentration of financial means for the professional education in the hands of county self-government;

3. Enhancement of the functions of the labour market institutions  Analysis of the situation of the Labour Fund in the field of financing of active forms of the unemployment counteraction and enlargement of the financial means of the Labour Fund, prepared for these purposes.  In provinces where big companies are to be closed and group dismissals are awaiting there are introduced programs for creation of new workplaces;  The Head of Province State Office are obliged to supervise an implementation of the act on "Employment and Unemployment Counter Action " ;  Development of the network of public and private employment agencies. 4. The changes in Labour Law:  Limitation of the possibilities of joining unemployment and pre- retirement benefits with incomes from work;  Acceleration of works on the project of the act for the Social and Economical Affairs Committee;  Amending theLabour Code within the following:  Enlargement of the limit of the overtime;  Restoration of the possibility of unlimited number of contracts signed for limited period of time;  Enlargement of the number of employees required to create the labour and salary regulations;  Gradual elimination of the period of encumbring the employers with payments for an employee for the period of his incapacity to work.

National Strategy for Employment and Human Resources Development 2000-2006

The important goverment dokument is National Strategy for Employment and Human Resources Development 2000-2006. It represents a set of directions of measures which, once implemented, will contribute to a higher productive employment, and thus to limiting unemployment and its negative effects. It comprises proposals of measures mainly of an educational, legal, economic and fiscal nature. In designing the Strategy use was made of the recommendations formulated in this respect on the European forum, while not disregarding the conditions determining the need to build “our own way”. The specific nature of the Polish situation stems from the ongoing demographic processes, cultural and civilizational backwardness, reforms implemented in various spheres of social life and the underdevelopment of particular sectors of the economy. The Strategy covers the period between 2000 and 2006. This timing horizon results, among other things, from the pre-accession process and the planning cycle for the tasks which could be funded by the EU. The Strategy will constitute one of six component strategies on the basis of which the National Development Plan for Poland will be developed. Due to the difficulties in establishing precise macroeconomic forecasts reaching as far as 2006 and also considering the fact that most EU funds will not be available until after 2002, the Strategy only contains the directions of suggested solutions; their detailed description in successive years is to be set out in the National Action Plan for Employment to be adopted annually. Most of the legislative changes specified in the Strategy must be assumed to be prepared and implemented (if feasible) before the beginning of the second implementation stage anticipated between 2003 and 2006. Then, an overview will be carried out and necessary changes will be made in the Strategy. The Strategy is a continuation of two previous government programmes: the Programme to Promote Productive Employment and Reduce Unemployment and the Programme to Promote Economic Activity of Youth.

6 Below, I will present only these fragments of The National Strategy for Employment and Human Resources Development 2000-2006, concerning the job information and vocational guidance services.

The near future of job information and vocational guidance services When discussing human resources development one should take into account the need to establish a system of “offensive” and widely accessible job information and a development and greater accessibility of vocational guidance services. Presently every person has to make many decisions concerning his/her career and solve many accompanying problems change of job, change of profession, enhance of qualifications. A number of organisational and publishing initiatives have been taken to this end. These include the formation of various types of job information centres at labour offices as well as equipping advisory services of labour offices and educational facilities in tools such as a “Jobs Guide”, “Files on Professions” as well as tools to diagnose preferences and professional skills. Work will continue to ensure a greater variety of instruments for advisors. Dissemination of employment information and services with respect to vocational guidance entails:  introduction of job counselling to the scope of general obligations of schools at different level of education  adoption of the continuity principle with respect to planning and professional career development services,  greater accessibility of employment information for youth and adults  integration of the vocational guidance systems for adults and youth  ensuring high quality individual services in vocational guidance through introduction of unified service standards.  ensuring a continuous development of vocational guidance methods and information materials facilitating career planning  establishing a continuous education system for vocational counsellors  promotion (at schools and in media) of an approach oriented towards a common understanding of the significance of permanent individual career planning by every person in order to improve opportunities on the changing labour market. The system of publicly accessible employment information and vocational guidance services should be different with respect to particular groups of beneficiaries, that is schoolchildren, graduates, job seekers, unemployed. In order to establish the system of publicly accessible employment information and vocational guidance services, which meet all the responsibilities, significant organisational and legal changes should in introduced in the current arrangements pertaining to vocational guidance. In order to improve the accessibility of vocational guidance and information, all schools will create a post of a vocational counsellor. Such counsellors will be responsible for regular co- operation with both the students and their parents in order to prepare the youth for the choice of their future vocation. Some kind of support for the counsellors working in schools will be provided by Career Planning and Information Centres, operating within the System of Labour Offices, as well as Vocational Orientation and Guidance Centres within the education sector. To provide greater accessibility of counselling and employment information it is necessary to establish a wide network of the so-called walk-in centres of vocational guidance and employment information, where basic information would be available for those individuals who seek information and counselling only without looking for employment yet. On the other hand labour offices should be accompanied by a network of specialist vocational guidance entities for

7 persons seeking broad individual assistance including psychological tests or balances of professional competencies. A possibility should be provided for basic services regarding employment information and vocational guidance to be rendered by private non-profit institutions subcontracted by territorial authorities in public tenders. As a result their quality will be continuously improving. It also seems necessary to develop minimum standards for vocational guidance services in order to ensure high quality of provided services. The main role should be assigned to the Centre of Information and Vocational Guidance at the National Labour Office. Qualification standards for job counsellors will be also developed, including different levels of certifications.

Summarizing my personal experiences - contact and cooperation between policy makers and professional vocational counselors is a very important factor allowing the regular growth of the whole sphere of the vocational guidance. To establish such a contact a good will of both parties is necessary as well as a special "occasion" or a "pretext", since it usually happens that counselors and policy makers are placed on the two sides of the barricade of ambitions and administration - they work separately and rather compete than cooperate. The Association of School and Vocational Counselors of the Republic of Poland is a very important platform permitting an exchange of different points of view and cooperation of both of these groups in Poland. Thanks to meetings during congresses, conferences and, recently, within various working groups, it can be seen that on both sides of the barricade there are people who although are of different opinions they still look in the same direction – people whose interactions and cooperation produce a better otcome than independent researches.

References:

1. Employment and labour market in Poland - Background study on labour market and employment in Poland; Sztanderska U., Piotrowski B., Warsaw, August 1999, For European Training Foundation 2. National Strategy for Employment and Human Resources Development 2000-20006 - government document 3. Report - vocational education and training in Poland; Publisher: TASK FORCE FOR TRAINING & HUMAN RESOURCES, COOPERATION FUND

Contact address: Wojciech Kreft Development's manager The Association of School and Vocational Counselors of the Republic of Poland 80-180 Gdansk, ul. Piotrkowska 34/10, Poland Email: [email protected] Website: www.telepraca.pl/sdsiz

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