House of Training based on Excellence, Innovation and Quality

On Monday morning, Luxembourg's new House of Training presented its programme of activities for 2016 including its various partners.

Having been announced this time last year, the House of Training is now located on the 1st floor of the Chambre de Commerce in Luxembourg-Kirchberg, following the recent departure of Luxinnovation to Esch-Belval. Nico Binsfeld (CEO) is supported on the Management Board by three Business Managers: Ben Lyon (ATTF), Muriel Morbé (LSC) and Werner Eckes (IFBL) and has a total staff of around 30 now housed together. With around 500 trainers in total, the House of Training has an annual budget of around €8 million and delivers training both face-to-face (mainly at the Chambre de Commerce in Kirchberg) as well as online through eLearning initiatives.

Fernand Ernster and Karin Scholtes, the two co-Presidents, presented the organisation's new structure which has two Vice-Presidents: Serge de Cillia (CEO, ABBL) and Carlo Thelen (Director General at the Chambre de Commerce). The organisation is an initiative borne out of a convention signed by the ABBL (the Luxembourg Bankers' Association) and the Chambre de Commerce last November, followed by a collaboration between the IFBL (The Banking Training Institute) and the Luxembourg School of Commerce (LSC).

It is based on principles of Excellence, Innovation and Quality, and its federal approach benefits from the synergies of the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), the organisation of Architects and Engineers (OAI), Energieagence and the Centre de Compétences ICT. Through the IFBL it also encompasses other organisations including the Luxembourg Funds Association (ALFI), the Risk Managers Association (ALRiM), the Compliance Offers Association (ALCO) and the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA), together with two clusters representing private banking and retail banking. The two main new initiatives concern ICT and entrepreneurship.

The House of Training covers 10 sectors and 8 domains in delivering training via 4 languages: French, German, English and Portuguese. Its new catalogues (split between IFBL & LSC) are now available for its certified training courses in 2016 - in 2014 it had 2,500 registrations in total.

Photos by Geoff Thompson (top, L-R): Ben Lyon, Nico Binsfeld, Muriel Morbé, Werner Eckes