"62.5% of adults should be in training, and we're still a long way from that target. We need a very broad offer and a political framework", insisted CSL President Nora Back. Photo: Shutterstock

"62.5% of adults should be in training, and we're still a long way from that target. We need a very broad offer and a political framework", insisted CSL President Nora Back. Photo: Shutterstock

To be able to take continuing training during working hours, without having to take time off work or "make up" hours afterwards: Such is the challenge of enshrining this right in the Labour Code. It's a long-term battle for the CSL.

"We are talking about a right to continuing training enshrined in the Labour Code. This would be individual training leave: employees would be able to take time off work without loss of pay, without having to take leave and without risk to their jobs. Taking a bachelor's or master's degree also represents a financial cost, which is why we are proposing to introduce direct aid for employees. We also need real guidance and to make continuing training an integral and compulsory part of working time", hammered home the point on Wednesday 1er October by the deputy director of the Chamber of Employees (CSL), Claude CardosoClaude Cardoso.

While these proposals are not new, they have yet to find a response from the government. "That's why we keep repeating them," he smiles. Points that need to be defined with the other social partners, i.e. employers and the government: "Are we talking about x days a year, over two years, etc.? At present, an employee has 80 days' training over his or her entire career, capped at 20 days over a two-year period - and this is still very inadequate. "We really need a paradigm shift. Today, everything is changing so fast that continuing training is no longer an option. All employees must be able to benefit from it, otherwise companies risk losing competitiveness to their competitors."

With the Luxembourg Lifelong Learning Centre (LLLC), its continuing training centre, CSL is counting for the year 2024/2025 4.646 participants in evening courses, 1,123 participants in seminars, 985 participants in senior courses, 772 participants in e-learning and 3,183 participants in training courses for staff/trade union representatives. "Relatively stable figures, but many more employees need to be able to be trained," insisted CSL president Nora BackNora Back. "In the latest Quality of Work Index, we saw that people have fewer and fewer opportunities to take continuing education courses. 62.5% of adults should be in training, and we're still a long way from that target. We need a very broad offer and a political framework."

Degree courses

AI is now integrated transversally into many courses. "For several years now, our top 3 courses have revolved around law and legal subjects, accounting and management, and IT. The order varies from year to year, but it is always these three main areas that concentrate the most demand," says Claude Cardoso.

Among the other demands put forward on Wednesday by the CSL, Nora Back stressed the need to enhance the role of the company tutor, to create a status for disabled apprentices, to set up a tripartite committee dedicated to continuing vocational training, and to strengthen the recognition of foreign diplomas and the validation of acquired experience (VAE).

As far as evening classes are concerned, the LLLC benefits from a partnership with the French Ministry of Education. "Each evening course leads to an examination. It's not a university degree like a bachelor's or master's, but it has real value on the job market, because employers know that it requires a real investment to pass the exam."