Europe and Poland are creating a new, transparent and ordered qualifications system facilitating communication between labour market participants and helping to implement the concept of ​​lifelong learning for employment. The key tools for this process are as follows: European Qualifications Framework, Polish Qualifications Framework, as well as sectoral qualifications frameworks. The system is currently being implemented in Poland based on the Act passed by the Sejm on 22 December 2015. Official solutions are being introduced, while at the same time creating opportunities for industry initiatives.

An important development of these activities is the project of establishing and operating sectoral councils for competencies launched by the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP). The financial sector has taken up the challenge and was selected in the PARP competition to be in the group of the first six sectors, in the creation of sectoral councils for competencies is foreseen.

In such conditions, the financial sector, individually and collectively, is seeing a real opportunity open to launch an initiative and propose a system for building and confirming employees competencies that is flexible, consistent with business needs. We believe that investing in a new quality of professional standards for professional bankers and financiers is a temporal challenge, but also a commitment to the future - the future of employees, organisations and the financial market community as a whole. The creation of a Sectoral Council for Competencies in the Financial Sector is an important step in this direction.

Believing that well-adjusted and confirmed competencies and qualifications of financial sector employees:

• improve the sector s security level and customer trust,
• strengthen transparency and quality of financial services for customers,
• help build trust relationships between the financial advisor and the customer, 
• allow financial institutions to be better prepared for new market trends and regulations,
• improve the competitiveness of the Polish sector and Polish financiers on the domestic and European market,

we support the initiative for creating the Sectoral Council for Competencies in the Financial Sector and we join the Council as founding members.

In our activities we will focus on supporting solutions aimed at better matching employee competencies to the rapidly changing needs of financial services.  The key goals of the Council will consist of:

• Including the Sectoral Qualification Framework and selected sectoral qualifications in the Integrated Qualifications System, which will simultaneously ensure that Polish sectoral qualifications are linked with the European market,
• Conducting research and analytical work within the scope of the sector s competency needs to serve as a basis for undertaking new initiatives,
• Initiating and supporting preparation of new sectoral standards, including qualifications, in response to new development trends, taking into account regulatory, technological and demographic changes,
• Developing sectoral cooperation between all stakeholders aimed at shortening the response time of the educational and training offer to the sector s newly emerging competency needs,
• Working to increase the development prospects of young employees, who will benefit from good organisational order, greater transparency and comparability of qualifications, also in an international dimension.