Competition “Employers of Tomorrow” – 7th edition is underway

The seventh edition of the “Employer of Tomorrow” was launched on April 17. The competition of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development is aimed at entrepreneurs and educational institutions cooperating with entrepreneurs who have implemented educational initiatives in the area of employee development or the promotion of educational ideas. The winners of this year’s competition will be announced in October. We invite companies from the Modern Business Services sector to apply.

An important aspect of the competition is the exchange of good practices in the management of people in organizations and the creation of a friendly working environment, shaped by technology, innovation and the needs of sustainable development. The winners of the competition are shining examples of entities that contribute to increasing the knowledge, competence or skills of the recipients of educational initiatives.

This year’s edition of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development competition will include two main categories: “Employee Development” and “Ambassador of Education.” Within each of them, initiatives in the micro and small entrepreneur segment, as well as in the medium and large entrepreneur segment, will be awarded.

COMPETITION APPLICATIONS

The competition is open to entrepreneurs or educational institutions together with an entrepreneur who have implemented educational initiatives aimed at pupils/students, graduates of higher, secondary or trade schools. The group of recipients of these initiatives may also include employees, including those newly hired, as well as the unemployed and job seekers, especially mothers returning to the labor market and those at risk of social exclusion. Another group includes teachers, university lecturers, trainers, counselors and representatives of other communities representing the formal or informal education sector, as well as pensioners, as long as the initiatives were aimed at restoring or sustaining their professional activity.

An educational institution is considered to be an institution working for the development of human capital or the adaptive potential of entrepreneurs (including educational law units, universities or non-formal education institutions, such as training companies). The condition for an educational institution to enter the competition is to submit an application jointly with an entrepreneur. In addition, an entrepreneur can submit only one project within a given competition category, i.e. a maximum of two initiatives. This is regardless of whether the application will be independent or joint with an educational institution.

Ideas can be submitted in two categories, under which participants had the opportunity to gain or develop competencies, obtain qualifications or acquire marketable skills. They are “Employee Development” and “Ambassador of Education.”

“Employee Development” – initiatives in the field of:

• assisting employees in their professional development,
• incentive systems for improving competencies, obtaining qualifications or skills,
• investment in employee development through programs that raise competencies or lead to the acquisition of employee qualifications (courses, training, migration programs between departments),
• development of soft competencies (universal, cross-sector) sought by employers (e.g., in the form of employee volunteering),
• activities that support the psychological comfort of employees, including the ability to cope with stress, anxiety, professional burnout.

“Ambassador for Education” – initiatives in the field of:

• cooperation of the entrepreneur with educational institutions (conducting lessons, workshops in schools, creating/supporting profile classes, cooperation with educational/educational NGOs),
• creation or support of original educational platforms/games, internships and competitions for students,
• involvement of employers in teaching and scientific activities for lecturers/teachers/student organizations (e.g., laboratories, research and development programs, scientific circles).

There are also formal conditions regarding the date and place of implementation of initiatives submitted to the competition. Thus, the title of “Employer of Tomorrow” can be claimed by those entities that started their educational initiatives no earlier than January 1, 2019, and the project itself was implemented on Polish territory. In addition, the submitted initiative could not have already been awarded or honored in the 6th edition of the “Employer of Tomorrow” competition.

PRIZES AND AWARDS

The “Employers of Tomorrow 2023” will be selected in the competition. There will be a total of four grand prizes, in two categories (“Employee Development” and “Education Ambassador”) and within each category in two segments (micro and small entrepreneur and medium large entrepreneur). In addition, sector winners will be recognized. In total, in addition to the main awards, the competition will include 17 sector awards and 17 sector honors awarded by Sector Competence Councils.

The winners, selected by the competition chapter and sector chapters, will be given the opportunity to use the title “Employer of Tomorrow 2023” indefinitely, as well as to use the competition’s logotype on advertising and image materials. Each of the selected winners has the opportunity to promote the winning initiative as part of communication and promotional activities planned by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development.

– “Employer of Tomorrow” is an initiative to recognize companies and entities that pay special attention to competence development and further education. According to PARP’s survey Bilans Kapitału Ludzkiego, as many as 83% of adults develop their competencies. In the era of the idea of lifelong learning, which we promote at the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, we would like to encourage companies to take part in the competition. By allowing our staff to develop, we also develop our own company. By investing in an employee, we show them how important their work is. This is the simplest answer to the question why such initiatives are needed,” said Dariusz Budrowski, president of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development.

Winners will be announced at the final gala in October 2023.

Honorary patronage: the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy and the Ministry of Education and Science.

The competition is financed by funds from the European Union under the Knowledge Education Development Program (POWER) and the state budget.

Detailed information, as well as the competition entry form, is available on the PARP website.

^[1] Educational initiative – an initiative in the field of cooperation between business and education, the initiator of which may be an entrepreneur, educational institution, association or foundation, and its participants will be given the opportunity to acquire or develop competencies sought in the labor market, in which entrepreneurs are actively involved.