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Framework of Actions for the Lifelong Development of Competencies and Qualifications - Belgium
Source: European Union
In March 2002, the European social partners adopted a framework of actions for the lifelong development of competences and qualifications, as a contribution to the implementation of the Lisbon strategy.
In the area of continuing training, the Belgian social partners have their own competence within the company which allows them to define and implement autonomously a genuine training policy which is particularly adapted to the needs of companies and the realities of the labour market.
This policy entails action by the different organisational levels the social dialogue, i.e. cross-industry, sectoral or company level.
At cross-industry level, the overall effort of companies in terms of vocational training together with the broad lines of policy priorities which must be pursued by sectors and companies is determined in the framework of cross-industry agreements negotiated every two years. These agreements have now been firmly incorporated in the framework of the European employment strategy.
The sectors are an essential cog for giving concrete form and implementing the provisions contained in the cross-industry agreements on lifelong education and training.
Lastly, the company, as the main contributor to and beneficiary of this policy, is a key element in this system, into which the collective labour agreements which are concluded in certain cases can be incorporated.
It should be pointed out that, apart from this important autonomous role in the framework of their own competence, the social partners are also closely involved in definition and implementation of continuing education and training policies, at both European and national level and taking account of the competences of the different levels of power.
Actions taken at national level
At cross-industry level, attention is drawn essentially to the fact that:
The Belgian social partners confirmed in the latest cross-industry agreement dated 17 January 2003 their commitment to achieving an overall corporate training effort equivalent to 1.9% of total payroll spending by the end of 2004. Their aim is to realise the objective set in the framework of the cross-industry agreement dated 8 December 1998 of increasing the overall training effort from 1.2% to 1.9% of total payroll costs over a period of six years. This commitment will have to be met at the same time as maintaining the specific effort of 0.1% targeting employment and/or training of persons in groups at risk.
In close liaison with the European employment strategy, the priorities defined in the framework of the cross-industry agreement dated 22 December 2000, i.e. at national level and for all sectors, in the form of guidelines addressed to the sectors, relate to:
Lastly, at the last national conference for employment, a series of agreements were concluded between the social partners and the government which follow the lines of the strategy developed in the framework of the most recent cross-industry agreements and by virtue of which, among other things:
Particular emphasis was placed in the conclusions of this same conference to improving the monitoring of training efforts:
In addition, the bilateral committees had been asked to submit a report by 31 March 2004 concerning compliance with their sectoral agreements and measures to achieve the agreed objectives as well as the distribution of training efforts by category, age and educational level of workers. In the framework of this reporting exercise, the National Labour Council issued recommendation n° 16 dated 27 January 2004 on reporting of sectoral training efforts (see annex 4). This recommendation seeks to inject a degree of harmonisation into the processing of sectoral data relating to training.
A first evaluation was carried out between the social partners and the government on the follow-up to this recommendation (see annex 2). Around sixty reports were drawn up in this way, covering almost 75% of employees, thus illustrating the involvement of the social partners in a new dynamic.
Lastly, at regional level, the Walloon employment service has developed since 1998 a network of skills centres. These centres are articulated around the activities of a specific sector and are therefore generally set up close to companies in that sector. They dispense training courses based on the most advanced technologies in the sector and work with all the players concerned: the employment service, sectoral organisations and educational bodies. In a number of sectors, universities and research centres are also associated. The skills centres dispense training courses to CEOs in the sector, jobseekers and schools. In this way, they succeed in matching the training service offer with the needs of the labour market. These centres also play an important role in the area of critical functions. They can give information on the sector and they promote jobs linked to the new technologies among their target public. The centres are brought together in a network by the employment service. Skills centres are also organised in Flanders, at the level of VDAB, and in close liaison with the sectoral social partners.
Generally speaking, these centres allow a pooling of resources by the different players with a view to anticipating, monitoring and meeting the training needs of companies in the different sectors.
Actions taken at sectoral level
• to identify and anticipate competence and qualification needs
Some sectors develop initiatives directly geared towards identification and anticipation of competence and qualification needs:
It should also be recalled that the social partners are associated with the skills centres which can direct jobseekers towards the skills in demand in the sectors.
• to recognise and validate competences and qualifications
Sectors have been encouraged to validate training through sectoral certification systems or “vocational training passports”. The social partners at cross-sectoral and sectoral level are closely involved in work currently under way in the framework of the new rules for skills validation which should soon result in the drafting of preliminary lists of priority skills areas (see above).
• to mobilise resources
a) General
The sectors play an essential role for realising the objectives set in the framework of the most recent cross-sectoral agreements or in the framework of the October 2003 National Employment Conference (see above). The policy defined by the social partners at cross-sectoral level is based on sectoral training structures. Bearing in mind the autonomy left to the sectors, these structures can vary depending on the branch of activity under consideration.
However, they most often take the form of training funds and/or training centres funded with resources coming from specific social contributions levied on wages in general on the basis of collective labour agreements, i.e. instruments that are the fruit of consensus between the sector’s social partners. A training credit system makes it possible to simplify the management of vocational training for workers by companies is in place in some sectors.
The content of policies implemented via these structures is also variable. Generally, for example, these policies can consist of:
In the framework of the October 2003 National Employment Conference, sectors were asked to report by March 2004 on their training efforts. It emerges that, of the sixty sectors that submitted a report by March 2004, forty-three have developed a training service offer for workers, thirty-one in the framework of education, thirty for jobseekers and twenty-seven for employers.
On this basis, the sectors in 2003 trained 254,208 workers (with training courses lasting an average of 19 hours), 11,314 jobseekers (average of 381 hours), 6,022 students signed up for an alternance-based scheme and 32,947 full-time secondary school students. It should be noted that 44,946 training courses out of the total concern a critical function.
Examples of sectoral initiatives
Among the many initiatives developed at sectoral level, mention should be made, by way of example, of the following initiatives:
• Banking sector:
The collective labour agreement provides for development of a right to training for each worker. In small and medium-sized banks, this right is two days a year. In large institutions, this right increases to three days. In order to stimulate and support this plan, the elanplus initiative (www.elanplus.be) has been created. Among other things this initiative allows free participation in seminars on various subjects linked to the banking sector.
• Cleaning sector:
In partnership with literacy associations (reading and writing), the sector’s social partners have agreed on establishment of free training courses for workers during working hours and without loss of pay. The aim is to teach workers in the sector to read and write and not to be embarrassed about their difficulties.
• Workers with employee status covered by the national auxiliary bilateral committee for employees (CPNAE orCP 218):
The 15 May 2003 sectoral agreement gives the right to a minimum of four days of training in the period 2004-2005. The training may be internal or external. In concertation with the trade-union delegation, the employer may introduce its own training plan or build on a standard and additional sectoral plan. If the training takes place outside working hours, the employer must grant the employee equivalent compensation in working time. If the employer has not proposed sufficient training days by the end of the period covered by the collective labour agreement, the worker will be given one extra day of paid leave for each day of training not taken.
Cefora (this sector’s training centre) organises the “check-up 45+”. This is a voluntary and joint initiative involving one or more employees aged 45 and over and their employer with a view to a screening by an external consultant of these workers’ specific training needs. This skills enhancement action places emphasis on seeking out the skills and capabilities of these workers with a view to proposing training courses deemed likely to anticipate changes.
Cefora has trained 3,717 jobseekers including 714 for functions in wholesale trade, which are particularly difficult to fill. Almost four out of five participants have found employment within six months, around half of them with an indefinite contract. Industrial apprenticeship has attracted 312 students in three years. Fifty-five apprentices were awarded a certificate in 2003 and 70% of them have found work, inter alia as warehousemen, goods handlers in the wholesale trade or as counter salesmen.
• Hairdressing and beauty-care sector( CP 314):
Establishment within the sector of a very structured training system which influences pay without affecting job classification systems. This training takes the place of the courses generally offered by brands of products specific to the sector. Creation of a qualification card for each worker, serving not only to record training credits but also to monitor them. The system is managed by the sectoral employment security fund which grants an additional end-of-year bonus to workers as a function of training hours taken up. Training courses are closely linked to the tasks to be performed (hair-dressing or beauty-care or communication techniques) and can be taken with recognised training agents whose names are accessible to training candidates via a website, which they can access using a password (http://www.coiffure.org/). The system involves training institutes and takes account of the needs of trainees in the sector.
• Paper manufacturing sector:
Almost 9 % of firms exercised their right to draw on the fund build up with the contributions paid by companies belonging to this sector. In this way, more than 2,500 workers benefited from training. The training effort in this sector was 2.62% of total payroll costs in 2003.
• Construction sector:
The emphasis was placed on flanking new workers with little experience by placing them under the tutelage of an experienced worker within the company.
The duration of this tutelage with a view to training varies from one to six months. In this way, three thousand “godfathers” devoted an average of two hours a day to flanking young starters in the sector. In parallel, training fund resources have been devoted to various types of training actions.
- 350 tutelage contracts have been concluded between the sectoral fund and affiliated companies; flanking within the company is complemented by courses lasting one or two weeks in a training centre.
- Organisation and financing of paid alternance-based training schemes (two years) for young people between 16 and 25 years of age (1,400 contracts a year); this is co-financed by the company in question and the sectoral fund.
- Follow-on training courses organised by the sectoral fund in a centre approved by the latter and in concertation with companies (17,000 beneficiaries in 2003).
- Intense cooperation with vocational and technical schools via partnership agreements.
- Payment of bonuses to jobseekers and to training centres for cases involving retraining in a construction-related trade.
Altogether these actions represent around 2.2% of total payroll costs in the sector; this percentage does not include actions taken by individual companies.
• Insurance sector:
More than 3,400 persons employed by 40 companies in the sector benefited from a training course paid for out of the sectoral fund. In addition, for many years the sector has endeavoured to develop recruitment and training of young jobseekers. In the framework of the 2003-2004 agreement, the insurance sector has undertaken to recruit 150 jobseekers for a total duration of one year, and to organise for them complementary training during working hours for a duration of three months with a view to a subsequent job in the sector. Realisation of this plan is evaluated regularly in the bilateral committee. Lastly, under the 2003-2004 sectoral agreement, a training credit of four days a year (internal or external) was determined collectively at the level of the company in 2003 and 2004. This credit increased from three to four days in the latest sectoral agreement. It involves a “shared pot” which will be distributed as a function of workers’ real needs. A report on this subject is presented each year to works councils.
• Textiles sector:
The sectoral fund financed with employer contributions partially reimburses to companies the costs associated with training their personnel (drawing rights) within the limits of their contributions and on the basis of a training plan.
En 2003, almost 368 companies introduced a training plan in this way. In addition, training courses are organised and financed from the textiles sector’s training fund; in 2003, 142 companies participated in this action for blue-collar workers (41% of them SMEs) and 137 companies for white-collar workers (39% of them SMEs).
Cooperation agreements have been concluded with the public training centre (VDAB) as well as with individual companies with a view to providing workers in the sector with training.
A particular information effort using different channels (circulars, mail, specialist magazines) on the existence of these various instruments was made by the employer federation "Febeltex", notably targeting companies but also other organisations likely to be concerned by these training courses.
• Steel-making sector:
According to the annual survey carried out in companies and whose results are evaluated on a bilateral basis by the social partners in the sector, it emerges that 588,790 training hours have been taken up by blue-collar workers in the sector, equivalent to 2.7% of the total hours worked by this category of workers. The cost of this training represents 3% of the total payroll costs of the workers concerned.
Actions taken at company level
1) General
Apart from financing sectoral training, companies participate increasingly actively in vocational training policy:
Arrangements for adoption and follow-up of the training plan may vary depending on the sector. However, these plans are generally discussed and drawn up in the framework of an agreement between the employer and the trade union delegation (often in the works council).
Approval of the training plan by the social partners at sectoral level is sometimes also required and may then be given by the sectoral training fund or training centre
If the company does not have a trade union delegation, a subsidiary sectoral plan can be put in place at sectoral level (e.g. prepared by the sectoral training fund). Sectoral collective labour agreements sometimes also specify in this case that the company plan must be submitted for prior examination by a bilateral body outside the company (e.g. regional contact committee).
Where it is provided, the vocational training plan is necessary to obtain the grants earmarked at sectoral level. Adherence to the plan is verified by the sector.
2) Specific actions
In the area of good company practice, attention is drawn to the following:
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