Problems of Polish Students with Gaining Professional Experience from the Perspective of Europe 2020 Strategy Goals

Abstract

IntroductionThe Europe 2020 strategy provides the direction to the development of the EU economies by formulating main objectives which should contribute to smart, sustainable growth fostering social inclusion. One of its dimensions concerns an increase in the employment rate, a reduction in the early school leavers share and raising the percentage of the population with a university degree (Europa 2020). From what has been observed in the Polish labour market, although the educational goals have been accomplished, the employment rate remains alarmingly low. This fact motivates the search for new means of boosting the employment rate. The high percentage of population with university degrees accompanied by a relatively high unemployment rate amongst the university graduates sets the area of study on tertiary education and its adjustment to the expectations of the employers and generally the issue of graduates transition from a university into the labour market.One of the conditions to find a job in a short time is to have practical skills developed from hands-on experience. Research shows that this condition is extremely difficult to meet (Kocor et al., 2012, p. 80; Kocor Strzebonska, 2014, p. 74; Heyler, Lee, 2014). The paper aims to identify the problems with gaining professional experience by students in full-time courses during education at the tertiary level. The issue was illustrated with the example of students in the master's degree course in economics at the University of Economics in Katowice. According to the research presented in this paper, they often try to combine studies with work.University of Economics in Katowice is one of the five public economic universities in Poland. Full-time studies at Polish public universities are free of tuition fees. Relatively low number of hours spent physically at the university and elastic working hours schemes offered by employers give an opportunity to reconcile full-time studies with job, even though it is not an easy task and affects diploma grades.The results of the survey performed provide the arguments for the thesis that students' preferences concerning the means of gaining expertise do not comply with available opportunities and actual career paths, and work during studies hardly ever helps to get the type of professional experience which could be appreciated by a potential employer. The paper consists of four parts. The first part formulates the problem in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy. The second part contains the review of the literature which exemplifies the importance of professional experience for successful transition of university graduates to the labor market. The third part describes the survey performed at the University of Economics in Katowice. The last part presents the outcomes of the survey.1. Problem formulationTwo out of five main goals formulated by the Europe 2020 strategy relate to the labour market. One states that the employment rate of the population aged 20-64 should reach 75%. The other assumes the reduction in the share of early leavers from education and training of the younger generation, aged 18-24, to 10% and the increased share in the population aged 30-34 having tertiary educational attainment to 40% (Europa 2020). The goals concerning education should naturally support the superordinate, employment-related goals. At the stage of formulating the objectives Poland with the indices roughly equal to the EU average had already satisfied the condition referring to early school leavers from education, whereas the tertiary educational attainment goal was reached in 2013 (Eurostat). Therefore, the objectives were adequately modified as presented in Table 1. The rates referring to educational goals were set at a higher level and the expected employment rates were decreased to 71%.Satisfactory outcomes in terms of educational objectives are accompanied by the employment rates explicitly lower than the EU average. …