Poland KFS: Employer Training Funding and the New Provider Rule

The Krajowy Fundusz Szkoleniowy (KFS, the National Training Fund) co-finances employee and employer training in Poland from the Labour Fund. It is employer-led: the employer applies to the local powiatowy urząd pracy — the county labour office — and the money follows the application rather than the learner. Two things make it worth understanding now: the governing law was replaced in 2025, and from 2026 there is a provider-side gate.

Check which rules you are reading

Poland's labour market framework was rewritten by the ustawa z dnia 20 marca 2025 r. o rynku pracy i służbach zatrudnienia (Dz. U. 2025 poz. 620), with KFS detail in the Minister's regulation of 25 November 2025 (Dz. U. 2025 poz. 1641). Aid is granted under the EU de minimis regulation, Regulation (EU) 2023/2831.

This matters practically because older figures are still in circulation — including on national pages — showing 80% funding for employers, 100% for micro-enterprises and a cap of 300% of the average wage. Those reflect the previous regime under the 2004 employment promotion act. If you are modelling a KFS-funded programme, confirm you are working from the 2025 act and the November 2025 regulation rather than legacy guidance.

What the fund now pays

Under the current rules KFS covers up to 90% of costs for sole traders and employers with nine or fewer employees, and up to 70% for everyone else. The employer contributes the balance.

There are two separate caps, and both bite:

Per participant — total KFS funding for one person may not exceed 200% of the average wage in the given year.

Per applicant per calendar year, as a multiple of the average wage, by headcount at the application date: 4× for no employees or nine or fewer full-time equivalents; 8× for more than nine and up to 49; 12× for more than 49 and up to 249; 14× for more than 249.

Note what that does to large employers. A firm of 250-plus is capped at fourteen times the average wage for the whole year, while a nine-person firm gets four times — so per head, the scheme is markedly more generous to the smallest employers, and a large employer cannot simply scale a programme across a workforce on KFS money.

The provider gate, from January 2026

This is the part that matters if you are the training provider rather than the employer. County labour offices report that from 1 January 2026 only providers entered in the Baza Usług Rozwojowych — the development services database — can deliver KFS-funded training.

The national guidance expresses this in statutory terms rather than by brand name: a KFS application for training services must state whether the provider holds an entry in the register maintained under art. 6 ust. 1 pkt 8 of the PARP act (Dz. U. 2025 poz. 98), PARP being the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, which operates that database. The practical effect is the same either way — an unregistered provider cannot be the subject of a funded application.

That places Poland alongside the other accreditation-gated markets. Germany's AZAV requires provider and course approval; France requires Qualiopi before EDOF listing; Poland requires a register entry. Only Malta's Investing in Skills among the schemes we have looked at asks nothing of the provider at all.

Eligibility, and the conditions that follow the money

Applicants must have paid Labour Fund contributions — or be exempt by law — for at least six months before applying, and must have no tax or other public-law arrears. Recipients must then maintain employment or business activity for at least three months. From 1 January 2026 sole proprietors became able to apply, which widens the base considerably in a market with a large self-employed population.

Funds can be used for identifying training needs, for courses, postgraduate studies and examinations undertaken at the employer's initiative or with the employer's consent, for medical and psychological examinations where necessary, and for accident insurance connected with participation.

Priorities decide what actually gets funded

KFS is not a general subsidy. Spending priorities are set each year, in layers: ministerial priorities nationally, regional priorities at voivodeship level, and in some cases a county priority on top.

For 2026 the ministerial priorities cover better company management and communication — including anti-discrimination, anti-mobbing and social dialogue; skills for shortage occupations in the county or voivodeship; training for new technologies including digital skills, artificial intelligence and green skills, particularly where job loss is a risk; and skills for health and care services and for cooperatives and social enterprises. Regional and county layers sit on top: Mazowieckie, for example, prioritises training for foreigners and the employers who hire them, newly hired or reassigned staff and people returning from caregiving leave, and workers aged 50 and over, while one county has prioritised firms that have never used KFS before.

An application that does not map onto a stated priority is unlikely to be funded regardless of merit, so the priorities are the first thing to read, not the last.

Applying: local windows, local budgets

Applications are made electronically only, through an individual account on the praca.gov.pl platform, to the county labour office competent for the applicant's registered seat or place of business. Each office opens its own application window and publishes it locally, and each county has its own KFS allocation — one county's 2026 limit, for instance, is 520,000 zł. There is no single national deadline to work to, which means the operative question is always what your specific PUP has announced.

For comparison with routes that work quite differently, Skillnet Ireland channels funding through sector networks and the UK apprenticeship levy lets employers draw down their own contributions. Our CPD courses are accredited, which is the starting point for any register or approval conversation.