The article presents issues associated with the training services market in Poland compared to other European countries and the USA. It emphasises the need for stimulating activity ofall participants of training schemes, which must be seen in process categories. The author enumerates conditions to be fulfilled by training schemes of an activating nature. The article points to a possibility of choosing one out of three solutions in the field of training schemes preparation and implementation. It can take a form of a sovereign activity taken up by a company, it can be commissioned to an outside firm, or both these forms can be combined, depending on the scope of training, its beneficiaries and its purposes. Special attention has been given to factors to be taken into account while choosing the company in charge of the scheme. The following part of the article provides an analysis of the training market in Poland in comparison with training markets in developed countries, from the point of view of demand for training courses and their supply. Reasons for taking up training activities have been indicated, along with methods and techniques applied by training companies operating in Poland. Irregularities responsible for inefficiency of the training process, as well as methods for evaluating this efficiency have been presented. The author points to the of attitude of company chairmen to the role of the training process in the company’s activity Particularly broad coverage has been given to the role of Training in development of employee skills, pointing to major advantage of applying advanced technologies in the training process and to barriers hampering development of the eTraining market in Poland. In the final part of the article the author presents results of her empirical research aimed at identification of training activities in food-processing industry small and medium-sized enterprises in the Lublin voivodship.