Enabling Smart Growth for Poland Through Education and Skills Supply

Abstract

Future growth in Poland is likely to come from an increase in employment and total factor productivity (TFP). Knowledge and skills play a key role in both. Labor market data indicate that jobs requiring low-level skills are being destroyed and that the newly created jobs require a higher skills level. Besides demanding higher-level skills, there is an apparent skills mismatch, and employers want it addressed. These findings have important implications for future reforms of the Polish education sector. Some of the issues described in this chapter have been addressed by the recently passed (March 2011) higher education law, the implementation of which will need to receive close attention. Poland has many reasons to be proud of its education system. It has tackled some particularly difficult reform issues such as the strengthening of general schooling and the significant expansion of tertiary education. These reforms will provide a strong basis for the next phase of system enhancement geared toward competitiveness and growth. In addition, the new laws on the research sector (2010) and on higher education (2011) are expected to have a major impact on system reform in the coming years.