On 16-17 November 2017, in the Podkarpackie Voivodship Exhibition and Congress Center G2A Arena in Jasionka near Rzeszów took place the Congress 590. It was the most important economic event in Poland this year. The representatives of large and small business, science, politics and public administration, for whom the dynamic development of Polish economy is the chief priority, have met in Rzeszow. The President of Poland Andrzej Duda was the Patron of the Congress.

On the first day of Congress 590, on 17 November, the experts have discussed the chances and possibilities of cooperation of professional education with employers. Participants of the panel included Prof. Henryk Skarżyński, vice- minister of education Marzena Machałek, as well as employers, representatives of the Foundation of Education of the Education System – the co-organizer of the panel – and the representatives of the Ministry of Education who are responsible for the professional education system.

Work market studies show that employers have difficulties in finding employees whose competences fit their needs. As many as 80% of the questioned companies said that they have problems with finding adequate candidates for work. Many employers point out that this situation is caused by the maladjustment of professional education to the needs of present economy.

One of the topics of the meeting was promotion in Poland of the best solutions of professional education by the European competition EuroSkills. The talks concerned also the ways in which international trainings and professional placements, also within the framework of the Erasmus+ program, help in building the international educational partnerships.

Prof. Henryk Skarżyński has presented the situation in medical institutions and problems, which people employing medical personnel have to cope with.

– Compared to the previous years, presently there are dozen times less graduates of professional schools, medical high schools and nursing schools entering the professional market. If employers have such elevated expectations that that require an academic degree for positions, which could be filled by personnel after professional schools, than they will have staff with academic, not professional skills. If you employ a person with master’s degree, you have to create the appropriate perspectives for them. There is much talk about the shortage of nursing staff. Less than twenty years ago we had nurses with secondary or upper secondary, education. Can we say today that a nurse with higher education is better than a nurse with secondary school education? Our society today is ageing, more and more often we are going to need staff not for medical interventions, but for care – rehabilitations specialists, nurses. This is why we should aim to develop a certain Polish model of school training in rehabilitation or nursing.

During the debate, Prof. Henryk Skarżyński brought up also the problem of emigration of Polish specialists, which contributes to the deteriorating situation in Polish health care.

– We should forget the thought that other, well-trained employees from abroad will fill places left by Polish specialists who have emigrated. On our own example – we have created the first in the world telemedicine network, we are training people in Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and we conduct pilot studies investigating the possibilities of cooperation in Central Africa and South America. By training people there, we have an opportunity of recruit collaborators, but it would be very difficult to convince them to some to Poland for the same remuneration. We hear that in the nearest future we will not be able to approach the level of wages paid in the developed countries. Then, without some loyalty programs, we will have no personnel.

Cooperation between the different Ministries and employers is crucial in terms of deciding, what kinds of employees are going to be needed, with what competences. It is also important to raise the remunerations regularly and to introduce loyalty programs for employees whose education is expensive and risk of emigrating high.

The second edition of Congress 590 was addressed to a wide group of receivers. It has more than 3 thousands of participants: representatives of large and small business, science, politics and public administration. This year, the program comprised seven topic blocs. The topics of Congress 590 have been chosen to allow common discussion and reflection on the future of Polish economy. The Congress had been organized by the Sławomir Skrzypek Foundation, whose work is aimed at development of economic sciences and entrepreneurship.