European and national policies on Vocational Education and Training (VET) need to be informed by sound and internationally comparable statistical evidence. The VET country statistical overviews are concise, descriptive and user friendly statistical reports. For each country, they quantify and compare key aspects of VET and lifelong learning. The selection is based on the indicators' policy relevance and their importance in achieving the Europe 2020 objectives.

VET indicators for Poland for the last available year
Index numbers (EU=100)

NB:   The index numbers are derived from data summarised in the table. Data in the table have been rounded to one or two decimal places. The calculation of index numbers is instead based on not rounded data.

Poland’s performance on a range of indicators selected to monitor progress in VET and lifelong learning across the European Union (EU) is summarised below. The chart compares the situation in Poland with that of the EU, based on the most recent data available (this differs by indicator). Data in the chart are presented as an index where the EU average equals 100. If the index for a selected indicator for Poland is 100, then its performance equals the EU average. If the index is 90, its performance is 90% of (or 10% below) the EU average. If the index is 200, Poland’s performance is twice (or 200%) the EU average. For some indicators, such as early leavers from education and training, a country is performing better if its score is below that of the EU average.

Data on which the index is calculated are presented in the table, which also shows developments over time. A technical definition of each indicator is provided in the annex.

key points

Access, attractiveness and flexibility

The percentage of all upper secondary students participating in IVET in Poland is 50.5%, above the EU average of 47.3% (data for 2015). The share of female upper secondary students participating in IVET is 40.7%, a little lower than the EU average of 42.0%. Young VET graduates are less likely to participate in further education and training (26.1%) than in the EU as a whole (32.8%) (data for 2016).

Adult participation in lifelong learning is much lower in Poland (3.7%) than across the EU (10.8%) (data for 2016). For older (1.2%) and lower-educated adults (0.9%), participation level differences are even more substantial: participation rates are less than a fifth of EU average rates. According to 2010 CVTS data, 22% of employers reported providing training compared with 66% in the EU, and 31% of all Polish employees undertook employer sponsored CVT courses compared with 38% in the EU.

Skill development and labour market relevance

Public expenditure on IVET as a percentage of GDP in Poland is 0.51%, a little lower than the EU average of 0.54% (2014 data). The amount spent per student, 5 300 purchasing power standard (PPS) units, is also below the EU average of 8 400 PPS units. At 50.2%, the share of Polish innovative enterprises with supportive training is also relatively high compared with the EU average of 44.8%. The average number of foreign languages learned by students in upper secondary level IVET (1.7) is higher than the EU average of one.

The employment rate for IVET graduates (aged 20-34) at ISCED levels 3-4 (76.4%) is slightly lower than the EU average of 78.1%. Their employment rate is 4.3 percentage points higher than for graduates from general education (although this is below the EU average premium of 5.7), and 30.7 percentage points higher than for graduates with lower-level qualifications (above the EU average premium of 23.4). All these employment data relate to 2016 and exclude young people in further education and training.

Overall transitions and labour market trends

In this section all data refer to 2016 unless otherwise stated.

The rate of early leaving from education and training in Poland is 5.2%, much lower than the EU average of 10.7%. Poland is already below the Europe 2020 average target (10%), but not yet below its national target of 4.5%. At 44.6%, the share of 30 to 34 year-olds who have completed tertiary-level education is higher than the EU average of 39.1%. Between 2010 and 2016 it has increased faster than in the EU as a whole; it is higher than the Europe 2020 average target (40%) and close to the national target (45%). The percentage of adults with low-level education (8.7%) is well below the EU average of 23.0%.

The unemployment rate for 20 to 34 year-olds in Poland is 8.8% and the NEET rate is 14.1%, both slightly lower than in the EU (at 11.8% and 15.2%, respectively). The employment rate for 20 to 64 year-olds (69.3%) is slightly lower than that of the EU (71.0%). The employment rate of 20 to 64 year-olds with a low level of educational attainment is much lower in Poland (39.5%) than in the EU (53.6%).

Score on VET indicators in the Poland and in the EU, 2010,
last available year and recent change

EU refers to EU-28, unless otherwise specified. Arrows ↗ or ↘ signal a positive or negative change. Arrow → indicates: no change.

(A) UOE back reconstruction of 2010 values based on ISCED 2011 not yet available. (B) AES 2011, used as proxy for 2010 baseline. (C) 2014 b flags in Eurostat online tables ignored on the basis of other relevant Eurostat metadata. (D) Forecast made in 2016. (E1) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for NL. (E2) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for EL, ES, NL, PL, RO. (E3) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for IT, NL. (E4) Based on 23 countries (missing: DK, EL, HR, IT, PT), with partial information for IE and FR. (E5) Based on 23 countries (missing: DK, EL, HR, IT, PT), with partial information for IE and FR. (E6) Based on 28 countries, with partial information for DK, EL, NL. (E7) Based on 25 countries (missing: HR, IT, UK), with partial information for BE, CZ, DK, DE, EE, EL, LU, NL, PL, SE. (E8) Based on 25 countries (missing: IE, FR, UK), with partial information for BE, EL, LU. (E9) Based on 26 countries (missing: IE, UK), with partial information for DK, DE. (E10) Based on 28 countries. (b) Break after 2010, therefore baseline data not included. (u) Eurostat: ‘low reliability’. (z) Eurostat: ‘not applicable’. (e) Eurostat: ‘estimated’.

Country-specific report details

Country report type
Keywords

Downloads

Statistical overviews on VET - Poland - 2017

EN 186.56 KB

Annex 1 – Short descriptions of indicators and additional notes

EN 74.35 KB

Annex 2 – Reading the Country statistical overviews

EN 39.5 KB

Annex 3 – 2017 Masterfile Country statistical overviews

EN 488.58 KB