Does the Polish Investment Zone enhance job quality and workplaces’ specialisation?

Purpose This article evaluates the quality of new jobs created in the Polish Investment Zone (PIZ), focusing on their impact on the development of employees’ competencies, job specialisation, the availability of training programmes and company initiatives aimed at enhancing job attractiveness. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a structured questionnaire, conducted with 200 entrepreneurs who received support under the PIZ. Findings The results suggest that the jobs created under PIZ contribute to the development of employees’ professional skills, mainly through access to training and organised professional development programmes. The workplaces created in PIZ usually require average or high qualifications. Nevertheless, the degree of specialisation of the newly created jobs shows variation by sector of economic activity and by region, i.e. between zones. The most specialised jobs are created by science-based firms, located in zones covering regions with a high level of economic activity, well-developed communication infrastructure, proximate to foreign markets, industrial centres and highly urbanised areas. The difference in the degree of new workplaces’ specialisation between domestic and foreign enterprises was not statistically significant, albeit the latter had a lower average degree of specialisation. Research limitations/implications It is worth noting that this study did not analyse the direct impact of participation in training on the level of employee competencies. Although the organisation of development programs by employers may indicate a desire to improve them, this does not unequivocally determine their effectiveness. For this reason, caution should be exercised in interpreting the correlations discussed, treating them as potential rather than empirically confirmed. In the future, it would be advisable to conduct studies that would directly and quantitatively verify the relationship between participation in training and the actual increase in competence. Practical implications The introduction of qualitative criteria, in addition to traditional quantitative requirements, enables directing public support towards investments that generate higher socio-economic added value. Flexible evaluation systems, rewarding innovation, automation and specialised positions, allow support to be better tailored to local conditions. However, it is crucial to maintain a balance between promoting the quality of employment and the accessibility of zones for small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, it is important to integrate investment policy with education policy, especially in the field of vocational and technical education, and to intensify cooperation between the administration, the private sector and educational institutions. Social implications Difficulties in the availability of suitably skilled labour may be a constraint on the creation of highly specialised jobs. Thus, in developed economies, the locational effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) do not always lead to an increase in the quality of jobs created, and their nature may depend more on the specifics of global corporate strategy than on local economic conditions. It may be crucial to support local educational initiatives, facilitating access to funds for investment in modern technologies and intensifying training and professional development programmes, especially in areas such as modern technologies, digitalisation, automation and robotisation of industry. Originality/value This study contributes to the development of research on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and other types of privileged areas by providing a broader perspective for the analysis of their impact on the labour market, going beyond quantitative effects and including qualitative aspects, such as the quality of jobs created, job specialisation, employees’ competencies, the availability of training programmes and activities enhancing the attractiveness of jobs.