If you plan training for 2027 with funding through Poland’s Development Services Database (Baza Usług Rozwojowych, BUR), you are working under different rules than a year earlier. In 2026 the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) amended the BUR rules several times: it introduced uniform requirements for providers, brought a development service standard into the Service Card and blocked price increases after publication. On top of that, since 2026 training funded from the National Training Fund (KFS) must be delivered by a provider registered in BUR. Below we summarise these changes and what they mean for your budget.
Quick Overview
What you’ll learn:
- Why 2027 does not end BUR funding
- What three updates to the BUR rules changed in 2026
- How the development service standard affects schedules and group size
- Why BUR registration now also matters for KFS
- How to check a service before enrolling employees
Who this article is for: employers and HR teams planning their 2027 training budget, and anyone using regional funding schemes and PARP programmes.
Reading time: 8 minutes
2027 does not end funding
BUR operates within the EU’s 2021–2027 funding period, so it is easy to assume that 2027 is the last year of support. EU law says otherwise: under Article 63(2) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060 (eur-lex.europa.eu), expenditure from this period is eligible if it was incurred by 31 December 2029. Regional operators’ projects and PARP programmes can therefore run beyond 2027 — when a given call ends is set by that project’s rules, not by the date in the funding period’s name.
The system is large. According to PARP (parp.gov.pl, October 2026), BUR has close to 7,000 registered providers, 1.2 million services have been published since it started, and more than 655,000 people have used its services.
What changed in BUR in 2026
| From | Change (PARP announcements, parp.gov.pl) |
|---|---|
| 1 January 2026 | No more split between commercial providers and providers of co-financed services — all meet uniform requirements under the regulation on the register of development service providers. Login via login.gov.pl. New rules for the Employer Profile and employer ratings of services. |
| 13 March 2026 | Once a service is published, its number of hours cannot be changed and its price cannot be increased. If the provider does not state a VAT exemption basis, VAT is calculated automatically at 23%. |
| 5 May 2026 | A development service standard in the Service Card: participant caps, clock hours, a schedule with breaks and validation completed at publication, trainers named up front. Price reductions possible until the day the service starts. |
For a company, the key point is that the Service Card has become more binding. The price and hours shown at enrolment will not go up later, and the schedule and trainers are known before the service starts. The schedule is not frozen, though — according to a PARP presentation, individual sessions can be edited up to the day before they take place.
The development service standard — what the Service Card shows
From 5 May 2026, every newly published service — except remote services and business consulting — states its class format: individual, group, or group with individual practice. Group classes require more than one participant. PARP also introduced maximum group sizes:
- training and vocational services — 30 people,
- postgraduate studies — 40 people,
- coaching and mentoring — 10 people.
The caps do not apply to remote services, exams or business consulting. A “remote service” is one of the delivery forms defined in the BUR rules, alongside, among others, a real-time remote service and blended services — for live online or blended training, check the Service Card and the rules to see whether the cap applies. According to PARP, all participants count towards the cap, whether they enrolled through BUR or outside it, so a group mixing funded and non-funded people shares the same limit.
Duration is stated in clock hours, and the schedule is split into classes, validation and breaks. A training day can last at most 8 hours including breaks and validation, and break length depends on the length of classes including validation. According to a PARP presentation, a day with 4.5 hours or more of classes and validation needs at least 60 minutes of breaks in total, which leaves at most 7 hours a day for classes and validation. For services leading to a qualification, the delivery period also covers the wait for the validation result and the document from the certifying body.
In practice, a programme that used to fit into “two long days” may now need three, and a group of more than 30 people on training subject to the cap has to be split into several services.
BUR and KFS from 2026
One change also affects companies that do not use regional funding: since 1 January 2026, training funded from the National Training Fund (KFS) must be delivered by a provider entered in the register of development service providers kept by PARP in BUR (Article 128(2) read with Article 461(2) of Poland’s Labour Market and Employment Services Act, api.sejm.gov.pl).
At the same time, the Act excludes using KFS funds for training already financed from other public funds (Article 125(12)(1)), so the same cost cannot be covered by both KFS and BUR-based funding. We cover the KFS rules for 2027 in Poland’s KFS 2027: four priorities and training funding rules.
Where BUR is heading
In an interview published by PARP in October 2026, the deputy director of PARP’s Competence Development Centre outlines the direction for the coming years: clearer funding goals and priorities, and more emphasis on the results of services rather than only on access to them. As a model she points to PARP projects that name the competence areas from the outset — this is how, for example, the sector competence programme works. She adds that final decisions rest with the institutions funding each programme.
No decisions have yet been made on how development services will be supported in the 2028–2034 period, so a 2027 plan is best based on projects that are already running.
How to plan 2027 training with BUR
- Pick the funding source. Check the operator in your region and PARP’s programmes — each project has its own rules, funding level and call dates.
- Read the Service Card before enrolling. Check the price, the number of clock hours, the day-by-day schedule, the trainers and the maximum number of participants.
- Size your groups. Training subject to the cap for more than 30 people has to be split into several services; for online or blended delivery, check in the Service Card whether the cap applies.
- Allow for validation. For services leading to a qualification, the delivery period includes the wait for the validation result and the certificate — plan time for it.
- Don’t double-fund. The same cost cannot be covered by both regional or PARP programme funding and KFS (Article 125(12)(1) of the Labour Market and Employment Services Act); split services between sources.
Our step-by-step BUR guide walks you through the process from creating an account to settling a service.
Read Also
- Poland’s Development Services Database (BUR): a step-by-step guide
- Sector competence funding for IT companies in Poland
- Poland’s KFS 2027: four priorities and training funding rules
- Training Funding Programmes Available for SMEs
Frequently Asked Questions
Will BUR funding still be available after 2027?
The 2021–2027 period allows funding for expenditure incurred by 31 December 2029 (Article 63(2) of Regulation (EU) 2021/1060), so projects can run beyond 2027. The deadline for a specific call is set by the operator’s project rules.
Can a provider raise the price after I enrol?
No. Since 13 March 2026, once a service is published in BUR its price cannot be increased and its number of hours cannot be changed. Since 5 May 2026, a price reduction is possible until the day the service starts (previously up to 2 days before it started).
How large can a training group in BUR be?
For services published from 5 May 2026: training and vocational services — up to 30 people, postgraduate studies — up to 40, coaching and mentoring — up to 10. The caps do not apply to remote services, exams and business consulting, and participants enrolled outside BUR also count towards the cap.
Does KFS-funded training have to be in BUR?
Since 1 January 2026, the institution delivering training funded from KFS must be entered in the register kept by PARP in BUR (Article 128(2) of Poland’s Labour Market and Employment Services Act).