Belgium

Description of the VET System in Belgium

Since becoming a unitary state in 1831, due to its three different language communities, Belgium has become a federal state through an amendment of the Constitution in 1994. The three federal regions, Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels Capital region are responsible for their issues connected to the citizen, including education and culture. Therefore, the Belgian VET system has had a different development in each of these regions and their language communities (Flemish, French and German are the three official languages in the country).

In the French community for instance, involving Wallonia and the French speakers in the Brussels Capital region, the French Community Commission is responsible for VET through the French-speaking institutions in Wallonia and Brussels.

However, a common structure of the educational system is used by all the communities, with three levels of education: basic, secondary and higher education.

The Mission Decree of 24 July 1997 established the general objectives for all basic and secondary education:

To promote self-confidence and personal development of all pupils;
To enable all pupils to acquire knowledge and the abilities that they need to learn throughout their lives and to play an active part in economic, social and cultural life;
To prepare all pupils to become responsible citizens, contributing to a democratic, mutually supportive, pluralist and open to all other cultures, society;
To provide all pupils with equal opportunities for social advancement.

Since the basic education system involves six years, pupils receive a certificate upon successful completion, which they can use to move on to secondary education. Therefore, the secondary education system is divided into two types:

Type II, or traditional education, governed by the laws of 1957 retained only in 10 schools of the French community and has been abolished in the Flemish and German communities;
Type I, or reformed education, used in all Belgian language communities.

The Type I system includes general, technical, art and vocational education. It is divided into four systems, the general secondary education (enseignement secondaire general/algemeen secudair onderwijs) placing emphasis on broad-ranging academic education providing a solid foundation for higher education; the technical secondary education (enseignement secondaire technique/technisch secundair onderwijs) teaching more technical subjects, enabling students to practice a trade or enter higher education; art secondary education (enseignement secondaire artistique/kunst secundair onderwijs) combining general education and training in artistic disciplines, enabling students to practice a trade or enter higher education; and vocational secondary education (enseignement secondaire professionnel/beroeps secundair onderwijs) preparing students towards practical skills, supplementing basic academic education, also providing the possibility for students to go on to higher education.

Due to various repercussions in educational reforms in Belgium, dividing the language communities, two distinct VET agencies have been set up in the 1980s: FOREM (Community and Regional Office for Vocational Training) for the French community and VDAB (Flemish Office for Placement and Vocational Training) for the Flemish community. Powers over vocational training and social advancement have been transferred from the French community to the Walloon region and to the French Community Commission of the Brussels region in 1993, enabling the Brussels Region to set up its own VET agency the IBFFV (French-speaking Brussels Institute for VET), also known as “Bruxelles Formation”.

As far as the social partner levels and roles in the Belgian VET system are concerned, The National Labour Council (CNT/NAR), as well as joint educational committees are the authorities responsible for the negotiation and implementation for vocational education and training at Belgian national level. Under the responsibility of the CNT/NAR, in which the social partners are represented at national level, the joint education committees have a large package of tasks, including the setting up of models of training programs per profession.

The responsibilities and roles are :

Conclusion of multi-industry agreements connected with training (advisory role);
Approval of apprenticeship centres; development of training in the occupational field; drawing up the qualification profiles (advisory and decision making).

In 2007, a new Degree on Adult Education was issued for the Flemish community . Later that year a new protocol for cooperation with social partners on the competency agenda was signed. The Competency Agenda 2010 has ten priorities for the coming years. The Flemish community has also:

Implemented the Generation Pact for increasing employment,
Conducted a reassessment of training courses,
Developed support to short-term job-seekers and introduced a new monitoring and support system for the long-term unemployed,
Refined tax cuts, bonuses for employers and introduced the work bonus,
Initiated referral by the employment services to the service cheques system
Improved exchange of vacancies between the various employment services and instigated an action plan to combat unemployment in Brussels, implemented a system for validating acquired skills;
Defined achieving equity for disadvantaged groups as a first priority for education and training in general.

In Wallonia, the focus has been to provide tailored solutions job seekers regarding training and guidance. For this, it was necessary to gain the agreement of all involved to define common priorities. This was obtained in 2007 in which ten key areas were defined:

Enhancing the image of jobs;
Updating the CCPQ (Professions and Qualifications Agency of the French Community in Belgium);
Company work placements;
Language training;
Labour market analysis;
Job seeker training;
Continuous training in the workplace;
Development and improvement of skills centres (20) and advanced technologies;
Advancement of skills validation;
Support in finding employment .

IVET

Many young Belgians complete compulsory education in full-time education in one of the previously mentioned Type I systems. The main objectives of Technical and vocational secondary education in Belgium are:

All training to be qualifying
Mastery of final competences
The knowledge that all pupils must have acquired at the end of the qualification section in accordance with the training profile defined by the Community Commission for Occupations and Qualifications .

In terms of curricula, there are options of 21 to 25 periods per week in the French community, which are grouped and organized cycles 2 and 3 of technical qualification education and the same cycles of vocational education, alongside common general education (10 to 12 periods).

In the Flemish community, students may choose an option from several disciplines, alongside basic education.

Another emphasis is given on part-time education in the Belgian VET system, allowing students to continue their education in a part-time compulsory education system, taking three possible forms: part time vocational education, industrial apprenticeship and approved training schemes.

CVET

There is currently no overview of CVET in Belgium. Parallel circuits due to people leaving school early and an unemployment crisis have been created and operators are free to pursue their objectives in their training schemes, financed by a vast range of partnerships. Conventional training suppliers are programs such as the EPS/ISO (social advancement education), VET schemes promoted by FOREM, VDAB and IBFFP, and training schemes for middle classes.

Although acting on distinct territories and under different circumstances within Belgium, FOREM and VDAB have similar schemes in order to help people to manage their career plans and to help enterprises to manage their human resources.

Both bodies have the same organization through vocational training centres set up and directly managed by themselves, centres set up in partnership with enterprises and approved centres.

For individuals in the French community, FOREM offers consultancy work to help jobseekers to find jobs by providing information about vacancies, vocational training with guidance, retaining or redeployment, and social and psychological assistance. For enterprises, FOREM has the task to recruit and select personnel including temporary workers, vocational training for current and future personnel and consultancy on public employment and training aids, including help with formalities.

As for the Flemish community, VDAB offers the provision of a basic service ensuring that various demands of jobseekers and employers are met, to plan training operations in accordance with well-defined criteria and setting up paying services, such as T-interim and Consult, whose tasks include recruitment and selection of workers, training and placement.

However, VET centres are organized using VDAB and FOREM own resources, or by assistance of third party organizations, therefore acting with distinct realities.

Quality Assurance

As far as Quality Assurance is concerned, FOREM received the ISO 9001 certificate and it possesses also its own quality assurance certificate.

Teachers in Centres for Adult Education in Flanders and in the VDAB must have a certificate of pedagogical competence delivered by the Flemish region.

In the Walloon region, titles of competencies are delivered for some professions, but also certificates that correspond to the requirements of the initial education certifications, but are obtained in adult education.

Flanders has also developed a series of key competencies matching formal certifications .

However, the European Network for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training has not yet published any information about the distribution of roles and organizations in Quality Assurance yet. This is mainly due to the distinct realities of the Belgian communities and institutions and organizations acting in these communities.

As for the Flemish speaking community, agreements (‘covenants’) between industry and education in the Flemish community are and were aiming to improve the quality in VET They have been tools to enhance co-operation between these two partners: VET schools and industry. The focus has been on implementing new fields of study (making schools more responsive to the skill needs of industry), organize workplace training for VET students, and give financial support to schools so that they can update their infrastructure. The inspectorate for secondary schools has integrated the common quality assurance framework in its regular quality control tool to audit schools. The Context – Input – Process – Output-tool of the inspectors provides space for a specific approach to VET schools.

As for the French speaking community, validation of non formal /prior learning is following the European recommendation from April 2004 and connected to the validation process on one side and the changes in the Employment Service electronic tools more attention is given to modularization by competences.

In 2004, the Flemish government launched as from 2004 “Accent on Talent”, a major innovation project. It has a particular focus on the status of VET and some schools in the project have innovated in removing barriers between general secondary education and VET. The inspectorate for secondary schools has integrated the common quality assurance framework in its regular quality control tool to audit schools. This tool of the inspectors provides space for a specific approach to VET schools. However, in terms of the use of the ten CQAF indicators, it is not clear at this stage if Belgium is using them for quality assurance purposes. However, for all of these indicators, measures are being implemented to improve the VET system for the two main language communities, the Flemish and French speaking community.

In July 2008 the Flemish Minister for work and education launched a Degree regarding a new Qualification Structure in the Flemish Community. Within this context a National Qualification Framework is being developed that based on EQF and several pilot projects have been launched .

EQARF Indicators

The following PDF attachment summarises evidence identified that relates any indicators used at national level to the ten indicators proposed in the EQARF recommendation: EQARF Indicators Belgium