On April 28, 2022, a meeting of the Presidential Council for Youth was held. The talks focused on the professional situation of young people and career counselling in schools.

We want young people to earn better and to make this work more worthy – said Łukasz Rzepecki, advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland, on Thursday after the meeting of the Presidential Council for Youth.

After the meeting of the Presidential Council for Youth, advisor to the President of the Republic of Poland Łukasz Rzepecki said that the talks concerned primarily the professional situation of young people and career counseling in schools.

He explained that the meeting was also attended by representatives of the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, the Ministry of Education and Science and the Voluntary Labour Corps. Representatives of the ministries said what initiatives in this area are being taken and what are planned.

„There was a discussion about wage growth. We want young people to earn better and to make this work more dignified. This is also part of the talks that we as the Youth Council are conducting and will continue” – said Rzepecki, adding that not everything can be done at once.

The presidential adviser reminded that at previous meetings the Council had focused on the issue of unpaid internships and this topic also appeared at Thursday’s meeting. „We talked today to work out solutions that would make these internships paid” – he explained.

When asked about specific proposals for bills, he replied that these are initiatives of ministries and „he does not feel competent” to talk about them, because it requires one hundred percent agreements, and for now the ministries are working on them.

He said that the next meeting will take place in the second half of this year, when the academic and school year will begin. It will allow you to summarize the situation and the solutions introduced.

He added that young people look differently at the professional situation, which is the result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the coronavirus pandemic. „On the one hand, the coronavirus pandemic has made us aware of the importance of industry segments in our country – such as IT fields. On the other hand, if we look at education, here we are aware that stationary it was better” – he said.

He added that for the most part, young people believe that their situation on the labour market has deteriorated.

During the conference, mateusz Grochowski, President of the Students’ Parliament of the Republic of Poland, assessed that the pandemic has shown how important soft skills are, which are lacking in schools – working in groups or public speaking.

„At universities, we are prepared very well theoretically, but sometimes we lack such an aspect from the socio-economic environment that will enable us to use this knowledge and put it into practice” – he said, adding that the change will prepare young people to enter the labor market.

Aleksandra Klimek from the Youth Section of NSZZ Solidarność-80 drew attention to the importance of career counseling already in primary schools, because „at the time of making choices whether to go to university or go to work out a profession, young people are not yet aware of it”.

„Most of them were taught by their parents that we had to go to college, because if we do not have a higher education, we will not have a good job” – she said.

Maciej Tyczyński, chairman of the National Youth Section of NSZZ „Solidarność”, said after the meeting that on behalf of his organization analyses and diagnosis of the labor market for young people were presented. „We presented specific programs, developed solutions, the implementation of which would improve the situation of young people on the labor market” – he noted.

In his opinion, representatives of ministries see the need to „increase the education of young people, raise their awareness” of trade unions, where and how they can apply for a job or how to write a CV.

Source: https://kadry.infor.pl/wiadomosci/5460795,Sytuacja-mlodych-na-rynku-pracy.html

Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.