Network of Skill Centres

Belgium

Vocational training is the main purpose of the Skill Centres. These Centres offer a wide range of courses, off the peg or made to measure, in synch with the needs of the job market. / In addition to training and in line with the development of new technologies, they also constitute centres of development, information and awareness-raising in relation to the qualifications, occupations and techniques they deal with. This allows them to offer businesses relevant advice on training and help them formulate their needs. / Aware of educational R&D, they adopt an approach of permanently improving the quality of the training they offer. / They demonstrate creativity by implementing innovative teaching methods, such as remote training and accompanied self-teaching, or new training products. / / Open to all, the problem of equality of the sexes is taken into consideration in the courses offered, notably by ensuring women are attracted to qualifications generally thought of as ® male ¯. / The Skill Centers are the fruit of partnerships between the public and the private sectors with the aim of integrating all the needs and responses of the socio-economic players. / Thus, they bring together Forem Formation, the IFAPME (Institut wallon de Formation en Alternance et des ind‚pendants et Petites et Moyennes Entreprises), the social partners of the professionals sectors (depending on the sector in question), research centers and universities. These partnerships are enshrined through mixed financing : Region of Wallonia, Sectorial Funds and European Structural Funds (ERDF and ESF). / These Centres have formed a network in order to guarantee the coherence of actions, the harmonization of the operation of the various Skill Centres and the exchange of resources. / / The Skill Centres must meet the needs expressed by businesses and their workers. They are based in areas with considerable potential for economic development in order to take account of the vital role played by qualifications, competences and intangible investments in the performance of businesses and in their ability to innovate. / As a result, they represent an undeniable appeal factor for investors concerned with having access to a competent work-force. /

Total Population

Starting year : 2001

y Use skill centres as ® locomotive ¯ for all devices of training / y Virtual centers / y Others regions of Belgium (Brussels, Flemish region) / y Beyond our borders? / x International importance of partnership / x European acknowledgement of the ® Peer review ¯ program (exchange of good practice)

Strengthen the 25 centres network

Increase the number of centres and reassess the partnership