The Polish shipbuilding industry is facing its greatest opportunity in four decades. The modernisation of the Navy, the construction of offshore wind farms in the Baltic and the growing demand for dual-use capabilities have converged in a way not seen since the heyday of the Gdańsk and Szczecin shipyards. Orders, capital and political will are appearing at the same time.
Today, Polish shipyards are above all repair yards and producers of hulls and specialist vessels. The road from here to building modern combat ships, unmanned platforms and offshore vessels leads through competencies — some lost irretrievably, others recoverable. The outcome is usually decided not in the main hall, but among the subcontractors, who determine delivery dates more than the shipyard itself.
The panel’s axis is local content, understood as the measurable share of Polish added value in a contract, not as a slogan from a press conference. We ask what percentage of the value of a ship, a foundation or an installation vessel actually stays in the country, who counts it and by what methodology. The difference between a Polish contractor and a Polish subcontractor assembling someone else’s components is fundamental — it decides whether a programme leaves behind competencies or only invoices.
Behind this stands the question of the Polish shipyard worker. Certified welders, hull fitters, ship locksmiths and naval architects are professions where the generation gap is already quantifiable, and the path to them leads through concrete institutions: vocational schools, technical secondary schools and technical universities. We discuss the state of these three tiers, why vocational education in the shipbuilding trades has been phased out in many places, and what needs to be done so that a student entering a vocational school in Gdynia, Szczecin or Wejherowo today works in a Polish shipyard in five years’ time — not a German one. Without this, the whole conversation about a renaissance remains planning on paper.