On Friday 2 October 2026, the Luxembourg Chamber of Employees (CSL) issued a position paper detailing how it aims to contribute actively to the public and institutional debate on the future of initial and continuing vocational education and training.
As a partner of the government in vocational training and an active stakeholder in the development of skills and qualifications throughout people’s working lives, the CSL said it wishes to propose ways of improving the current system, drawing on European priorities in education and training, realities on the ground, employees’ needs and the requirements of the economic world.
According to the CSL, the document aims to inform the considerations of policymakers, social partners and training professionals by proposing several concrete, realistic and ambitious avenues for sustainable reform of vocational training in Luxembourg. The CSL emphasised that these proposals are not regarded as exhaustive.
Establish a tripartite committee for continuing vocational training
The CSL recommends establishing a tripartite committee dedicated to continuing training, with a balanced composition of representatives of employees, employers and public authorities. The committee should have a clear mandate, including:
⁃ Defining strategic priorities;
⁃ Monitoring the implementation of training policies;
⁃ Regularly evaluating existing schemes; and
⁃ Formulating reform proposals.
To ensure transparency and effective social dialogue, the CSL recommends holding regular consultations with all stakeholders, as well as systematically publishing the committee’s opinions and recommendations.
Finally, the committee’s composition and working methods should take into account the specific characteristics of different sectors of activity, in order to ensure an appropriate response to the needs of all stakeholders concerned.
Establish an individual right to lifelong learning
The CSL proposes introducing a general principle granting every employee a genuine individual right to continuing training, as stipulated in Article 1 of the European Pillar of Social Rights. To implement this right, a number of schemes should be introduced, amended or further developed. In particular:
Make employers more responsible and raise awareness
The CSL stressed that employers must be fully involved in training efforts and they should be required to ensure that part of each employee’s working time is devoted to training. The CSL emphasised that this measure would also benefit the company itself, as a well-trained workforce represents an undeniable competitive advantage. Such a measure should form part of a forward-looking skills management approach in order to secure employees’ career paths and equip companies with the skills they require.
Remove barriers to training
For every individual to be able to undertake training, the CSL detailed that three conditions must be met:
⁃ Time: reform individual training leave to enable employees to undertake long or qualifying training courses. The current provision of 80 days over an entire career, capped at 20 days over a two-year period, is far from sufficient;
⁃ Funding: introduce financial assistance for employees to cover the training costs incurred; and
⁃ Guidance: provide a high-quality personalised guidance service to support adults’ plans to develop their skills or retrain.
Strengthen recognition of foreign qualifications and validation of prior learning (VAE)
The CSL also stressed the importance of making improvements to the procedure for recognising qualifications obtained abroad — including transparency, deadlines, decisions and compensatory measures — in order to optimise the use of the skills available in Luxembourg.
With this in mind, the CSL said it would be appropriate, among other things, to:
⁃ Guarantee equivalence between academic and vocational qualifications at the same level of the Luxembourg Qualifications Framework;
⁃ Substantially expand language courses for this group; and
⁃ Offer adaptation placements and/or additional training.
VAE should become a central tool in career pathways, as it makes it possible to recognise skills acquired outside formal education and training. To this end, the current procedures and tools, which for many people constitute a barrier or even an insurmountable obstacle, should be simplified and adapted.
The CSL recommends rethinking the process by providing mandatory, high-quality support before the procedure begins, in order to help and guide applicants in identifying or validating the qualification in relation to their objectives and the skills they possess.
The validation procedure should then genuinely focus on skills by offering a validation process adapted to different groups.
Several validation options could therefore be offered to applicants. For example, applicants could choose between:
⁃ A written procedure similar to the one currently in place, but with existing forms simplified and streamlined; or
⁃ A practical assessment to demonstrate their skills without taking the form of a conventional school examination; or
⁃ A project to be completed, with a presentation of the project and/or its results.
In this context, the CSL considers that candidates undertaking a VAE process should be entitled to special leave enabling them to complete their project, either through reformed individual training leave or dedicated leave.
Expand opportunities for official qualifications
The CSL proposes expanding continuing training opportunities leading to an official qualification. To this end, it would be appropriate to:
⁃ Generalise work-based apprenticeship to all dual vocational training programmes;
⁃ Offer more qualification programmes at all levels, including BTS, Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, outside normal working hours, in the evenings and/or during the day at weekends;
⁃ Modularise initial training programmes at all levels, thereby enabling adults to undertake or complete training or qualifications at their own pace, in a flexible manner, with credits that can be accumulated over time;
⁃ Enable candidates who have obtained partial VAE to complete their training by taking the relevant modules in initial vocational training; and
⁃ Create more sector-specific training centres where there is a sufficient critical mass, following the example of the skills centres in the craft sector, with modular training leading to official qualifications.
Establish a “national quality system”
Moreover, against a backdrop of rapidly changing skills requirements and increasing demands for professionalisation, the CSL said it is becoming essential to guarantee the quality of continuing training provision. This would make it possible to:
⁃ Structure and harmonise the practices of training providers around clear and shared criteria, promoting transparency, comparability and recognition at national and potentially international level;
⁃ Strengthen the confidence of beneficiaries — employees, companies and institutions — in the relevance and effectiveness of the training offered;
⁃ Ensure that public funding supports high-quality initiatives;
⁃ Encourage continuous improvement through regular monitoring and the incorporation of participants’ feedback; and
⁃ Recognise committed providers by offering them official recognition, which could also enhance their international profile, both in the Greater Region and beyond.
However, it is essential to ensure that a “quality system” does not become a mere procedural or administrative burden. It should be designed as a tool for genuinely improving educational quality and should focus on the impact of training on learners.
