The Activity of Academic Careers Office in Poland
Phd Joanna Omieciuch University of Finance and Management in Bialystok, Poland, Dean of
Faculty of Economy, jjom@poczta.onet.pl
The Career centers have operated as organizational units of universities in Great
Britain, Ireland, the United States of America, Canada and Australia. In nineties the idea of
creating career centers spread over the other European countries among others Germany,
France, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Romania and Poland.
Within the economic changes in Poland being a result of the transformation from the
central to free market economy, the level of unemployment increased dramatically.
Demanding labour market and gradual increase in the number of students in the country
caused the university diploma to be insufficient to provide a satisfactory employment. There
was a need to create the organization that would help students and graduates begin their active
working life on the more and more competitive labour market.
This institution that helps is The Office of Vocational Promotion of Students and
Graduates – Careers Office. The Careers Office runs its activity in a few fields. The office
provides assistance not only for students but also employers with whom the university
cooperates. The office is a kind of link between the university and the job market in a broad
meaning.
The first Polish Academic Careers Office was officially opened in October 1993 at
Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun. The structure and activity of it followed British
patterns. At present British career services deal with career promotion of students and
graduates of university colleges, help them to enter the labour market by career advisory and
outlining their further career path, which is based on psychological tests conducted by career
advisors. What is more, career services duty is to cooperate with companies, their domestic
and foreign branches, foundations, all sorts of associations and be involved in the nationwide
statistical research on graduate career paths.
At present there are over 170 academic career offices in Poland and most of them are
located in the major centers of higher education among others Warsaw, Cracow, Wroclaw,
Poznan, Lodz, Lublin, and Bialystok too. The mission of them is to help students and
graduates of universities to choose their careers and facilitate finding employment, which
corresponds to their qualifications and ambitions. Not only a significant increase in the
number of these units but also in their specialization has been recorded in the recent time.
More and more offices are offering support to students of specific field of study and disabled
students.
The Careers Office was established at University of Finance and Management
(WSFiZ) in 2002. Its main activity is focused on helping students and graduates to make their
career choices so as to suit their qualifications and aspirations.
The Office also acts as a job agency. From November 2004, the WSFiZ Careers
Office was listed in the Employment Agency Register as a recruitment agency for the whole
of Poland and a Human Resources Consulting Agency, under No. 957/1a. It organizes regular
meeting and presentations aimed at bringing together young job seekers with their prospective
employers. It runs career counseling and training courses on how to prepare job application
documents; develop interview skills, effective ways of job seeking and career planning.
In October 2011 the amended Act on Higher Education entered into force and
implemented an obligation to monitor vocational careers of university graduates. The
obligation is performed at WSFiZ by the Careers Office, which conducts annual Research on
careers of WSFiZ graduates. Aims of the research are as follows: determination of
educational and vocational plans of WSFiZ graduates; determination of a situation of
graduates in the labour market; collection of information relating to economic and social
environment of a graduate, who is looking for a job.