Integrated Qualifications System (IQS)

The IQS, or the Integrated Qualifications System, describes, systematises and gathers various qualifications in a single, universally accessible register – the Integrated Qualifications Register. The IQS also defines the principles and standards of awarding the qualifications included in it, which guarantees the high quality of the professional certificates issued within the system.

It is a system aimed at increasing the level of human capital in Poland, enabling you to confirm your own skills or those of your employees in the Polish and foreign labour markets.

Thanks to the introduction of the system:


  • • everyone can seek to have their competences confirmed, regardless of how they were obtained
  • 
• the way qualifications are awarded is scrupulously monitored by government ministers
  • 
• employers can more easily determine the value of a potential employee, and employees can present their competences in a reliable way

The Act on the Integrated Qualifications System came into force on January 15, 2016. The legal act sets the basic framework for the new functioning of qualifications in Poland.

Lifelong learning

The Integrated Qualifications System is an important tool of lifelong learning policy, implemented in accordance with the strategy of the Polish government and the European Union. The idea of lifelong learning is based on the belief that even after the completion of formal education, it is necessary to continue learning and to improve one’s qualifications.

Why was the IQS developed?

Dynamic changes in the Polish labour market require greater flexibility of both employees and employers – the readiness to take on new challenges and the ability to adapt to new market conditions. In order to avoid professional stagnation or even exclusion from the labour market, employees need to continually gain new skills, while employers need to seek job candidates with a specific set of competences as well as continually improve the skills of their staff.

The Integrated Qualifications System offers the possibility to have of knowledge and skills acquired through self-study formally confirmed and provides universal access to a structured list of available market qualifications that are clearly defined. The full list of qualifications can be found in a public database – the Integrated Qualifications Register. Well-described qualifications will tell you which knowledge and skills a person must have if they want to prove their competence in a particular field, or what an employer can expect from a candidate for a particular position.

The experience of other European countries shows that with the introduction of a system organising the qualifications market, the number of people interested in formally confirming and improving their competences increases. Everyone will benefit from this: employees themselves, both at home and abroad, employers and industry organisations.

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