Education closer to the labor market. The vast majority of the Sejm supports the government project

On Wednesday, the majority of parliamentary clubs supported further work on the government bill regulating the status of the Provincial Coordination Teams for skills policy. The Confederation club is against the solutions.

The government's draft act on Provincial Coordination Teams for Skills Policy (WZK) concerns defining the rights and obligations of regions in the field of skills policy coordination and providing them with tools to influence the educational offer available in their territory. The new regulations are intended to give permanent legal status to WZKs, which have so far operated on a pilot basis as part of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Plan (KPO). The aim of the changes, as we read, is to better adapt education to the needs of the labor market.

The project implements the milestone “HR for the modern economy: improving the matching of skills and qualifications to the requirements of the labor market”, included in the KPO. It should be completed by April 2026 – in accordance with the adopted schedule.

The first reading of the project was carried out on Tuesday by the education and science committees and the local government and regional policy committees at a joint meeting.

On Wednesday, at the plenary session of the Sejm, the rapporteur, Wiesław Różyński, informed that the committees had adopted the project unanimously and recommended that the Sejm adopt it with editorial and legislative amendments. He said that “we are in a decisive phase” of the project, the legislative work on which has been ongoing since July 2025. He argued that “the act must enter into force by the end of the first quarter of 2026 at the latest to guarantee the payment of subsequent tranches of funds from the KPO.”

Różyński added that “the key element remains the Provincial Coordination Team – an opinion-giving and advisory body of the voivodeship board.” – It will take over the competence of issuing opinions on the validity of education in a given profession from the provincial labor market councils. This opinion will be a mandatory attachment to applications for new fields of study, experiments or entries in the school register – he explained.

The Law and Justice Club announced that it was not against the bill. – Its assumptions, concepts and goals were developed largely by the previous government, because for us, improving the matching of skills and qualifications to the requirements of the labor market (…) is essential – argued MP Marzena Machałek. At the same time, she admitted that she was “surprised that the act is being prepared in such an urgent manner.” – You had two and a half years to prepare it. You had money from PFR ready, you had a pilot project (…), you could work on this bill calmly, she added.

Iwona Krawczyk (Civic Coalition) emphasized that regulating the legal status of WZK is a response to growing challenges, including: labor market and competence development in the regions and “ensures effective social dialogue taking into account the interests of various social and economic environments.”

Wiesław Różyński (PSL-Trzecia Droga) argued that “thanks to the act, the educational offer in voivodeships, especially vocational education, higher education and adult learning, will be better suited to the real needs of regional labor markets.” He emphasized that in the era of rapid technological changes, this is “absolutely crucial”.

Dorota Olko (Left Wing) noted that the project concerns “anchoring in the Polish legal system institutions that already function successfully there, i.e. WZK.”

Żaneta Cwalina-Śliwowska (Center) argued that the act was necessary. She assessed that it brings order to the “today scattered” system and is a milestone of the KPO, “on which the effective settlement of funds and the credibility of the implementation of our obligations depend.”

The Polska 2050 Club also announced its support for the project. – We can agree or not, but we have decided that we have accepted funds from the KPO and within these KPO funds we are implementing milestones, the implementation of which will result in us either obtaining the funds or not – said MP Bartosz Romowicz.

The Confederation Club announced that it would be against the solutions. – Instead of actually improving the adjustment of education to the labor market, this project risks, and it risks very much: excessive bureaucracy, political influence on vocational education, slowing down decisions, multiplication of structures and lack of real responsibility for results – said MP Ryszard Wilk.

He added that this is “another example of the Polish state losing simplicity, efficiency and common sense in the name of fulfilling subsequent KPO obligations in order to be able to obtain a loan.”

Deputy Minister of Education Katarzyna Lubnauer noted that the act aims to include WZK, which are already operating under the pilot program, in the legal system.

– The act is about ensuring financing – for now for 10 years, because statutes usually provide for ten-year financing periods. Therefore, this act ensures that we will provide financing until 2035, she said. Later, as she added, “an amendment to the act should be adopted to extend it for subsequent years, along with an evaluation of the purposefulness of WZK's operation.”

– One thing must be admitted that our predecessors prepared the ideas of both the WZK and the Industry Skills Centers (BCU), but when it comes to implementing them, i.e. organizing competitions thanks to which new ones were created, 52 out of 124 were awarded during the times of Minister Machałek and Law and Justice – said Lubnauer.

As stated in the regulatory impact assessment, funds for the implementation of tasks and operation of the WZK in the second half of 2026 have been secured in the special-purpose reserve of the state budget. After 2026, the operation of WZK will be financed from the state budget in the form of an annual targeted subsidy for voivodeship governments from the state budget's earmarked reserve. The subsidy limit for voivodeships will amount to a total of PLN 12.8 million per year, with half of this amount being transferred in 2026.

The proposed act is to enter into force on July 1, 2026. For some provisions, the date in this respect is April 1, 2026. (PAP)

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