Increasing business complexity and level of automation, mass adjustment of products to customers’ needs and requirements, changes in the use of technology, structural changes in the economy in favour of the service sector, changes in the life cycle of products and sectors require the creation of development resources for the new economy.
A key role is played here by the development of appropriate qualifications, competences, skills in the labour market, as well as actions undertaken for the sake of the development of labour market resources (e.g. professional activation, education).
Human and Social Capital Development
As far as building development resources for the new economy is concerned, strengthening human and social capital becomes an important element. The skills of individuals and social groups become the key concept for the development of human capital, e.g.:
- transversal skills – allowing to perform social and professional functions/roles in varied contexts, independent of a given industry/sector or profession, used in various situations (e.g. language skills, communication skills, entrepreneurial skills);
- digital skills – which are necessary in the modern world regardless of age or physical fitness, allow to learn about digital content and assess its reliability, use it in everyday life, expand the demand for e-services;
- professional skills – particularly for strategic sectors.
Social and economic issues are directly linked to human capital which will become even more important in order to gain competitive advantages in the global economy as demographic processes and other global challenges progress.
For years, the Polish labour market has undergone transformations (e.g. migration, automation and digitisation of work processes), which with greater or lesser success have resulted in its adaptation to economic reality.
For the quality of human capital in Poland it is crucial to undertake measures, inter alia, to improve the effectiveness of the formal education system as well as to popularise and enhance the efficiency of non-formal teaching for all age groups, employee mobility, to reskill, to increase flexibility in the labour market.
There are still many challenges of structural nature. Major problems of the Polish labour market arise from unused labour resources, especially among groups most exposed to social exclusion and long-term unemployment, i.e.: young people, the elderly, the disabled, women and immigrants.
The Influence of Globalisation
Globalisation combined with digitisation requires new competences, i.e.: living or working in a multicultural environment, promoting the culture of entrepreneurship at universities, strengthening the research potential at universities and their stronger inclusion in the system of creating innovations, promoting mobility (including international mobility) of people between sectors (science/business) and within sectors, balancing the participation in the international talent circulation (attractive labour market, creation of high added-value job opportunities, e.g. by attracting foreign R&D centres and establishing research centres by Polish companies), ensuring appropriate supply of the R&D personnel.
This also requires the changes in the education system aimed at shaping attitudes and characteristics forging innovativeness (e.g. encouraging creativity, accepting the risk associated with novelties, freedom of discussion, tolerance for mistakes, openness to diversity, teamwork, flexibility and speed of action).
