Reviewing accreditation for out-of-school CVET

Policy development
Regulation/Legislation
Poland
Download PDF version
Timeline
  • 2018Approved/Agreed
  • 2019Approved/Agreed
ID number
28748

Background

A brief overview of the context and rationale of the policy development, explaining why it is implemented or why it is important.

An act introducing numerous changes in the VET system in Poland was signed on 22 November 2018. The changes affected the three most important legal acts for the education system in Poland as well as a number of regulations in other legal documents.

The main aim of the reform, according to the education ministry, is to restore the prestige of vocational education in Poland by improving its quality and effectiveness. Special emphasis is placed on strengthening the mechanisms for involving employers in the development of VET in all its stages, particularly in practical vocational training and on the systematic adaptation of VET to labour-market-needs by forecasting the demand for professions and skills.

Objectives

Goals and objectives of the policy development.

Improving quality assurance mechanisms relating to continuing education outside of schools.

Description

What/How/Who/For whom/When of the policy development in detail, explaining its activities and annual progress, main actors and target groups.

The Law of 22 November 2018 further developed the accreditation system for institutions providing continuing education outside of schools aimed at greater quality control.

The key changes include the different scope of accreditation (which will be issued for a given educational activity instead of accreditation for all, or a majority of, activities of a given institution) and time-limited accreditation (five years instead of indefinite). Further, new requirements for institutions applying for accreditation were defined.

2018
Approved/Agreed
2019
Approved/Agreed

In August 2019, the education ministry introduced a new regulation including the changes described above and providing more detailed guidelines, such as on the documents required from institutions applying for accreditation, accreditation procedures and other issues.

Bodies responsible

This section lists main bodies that are responsible for the implementation of the policy development or for its specific parts or activities, as indicated in the regulatory acts. The responsibilities are usually explained in its description.
  • Ministry of National Education
  • Ministry of National Education (until 2021)

Target groups

Those who are positively and directly affected by the measures of the policy development; those on the list are specifically defined in the EU VET policy documents. A policy development can be addressed to one or several target groups.

Learners

  • Adult learners

Entities providing VET

  • VET providers (all kinds)

Thematic categories

Thematic categories capture main aspects of the decision-making and operation of national VET and LLL systems. These broad areas represent key elements that all VET and LLL systems have to different extents and in different combinations, and which come into focus depending on the EU and national priorities. Thematic categories are further divided into thematic sub-categories. Based on their description, policy developments can be assigned to one or several thematic categories.

Governance of VET and lifelong learning

This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.

This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.

The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.

Further developing national quality assurance systems

This thematic sub-category refers to further development of national quality assurance (QA) systems for IVET and CVET, for all learning environments (school-based provision and work-based learning, including apprenticeships) and all learning types (digital, face-to-face or blended), delivered by both public and private providers. These systems are underpinned by the EQAVET quality criteria and by indicative descriptors applied both at system and provider levels, as defined in Annex II of the VET Recommendation. The sub-category concerns creating and improving external and self-evaluation of VET providers, and establishing criteria of QA, accreditation of providers and programmes. It also covers the activities of Quality assurance national reference points for VET on implementing and further developing the EQAVET framework, including the implementation of peer reviews at VET system level.

Subsystem

Part of the vocational education and training and lifelong learning systems the policy development applies to.
CVET

Further reading

Sources for further reading where readers can find more information on policy developments: links to official documents, dedicated websites, project pages. Some sources may only be available in national languages.
Act of 22 December 2018 amending the Education Law, the Act on the Education System and other acts (Journal of Laws 2018, item 2245)
Regulation of the Minister for National Education of 29 August 2019 on the accreditation of continuing education in out-of-school forms (Journal of Laws 2019, item 1692)
VET reform continues

Country

Poland

Type of development

Policy developments are divided into three types: strategy/action plan; regulation/legislation; and practical measure/initiative.
Regulation/Legislation
Cite as

Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Reviewing accreditation for out-of-school CVET: Poland. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].

https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28748