Education and training issues are split between three ministries: the Ministry of National Education, Children and Youth, headed by (DP), the Ministry of Research and Higher Education, headed by , and the Ministry of Labour, headed by (CSV). Meisch is responsible for basic and secondary education and vocational training (life long learning). Obertin is responsible for the organisation of higher education in Luxembourg. The ministry is responsible for the University of Luxembourg and the higher technician training programmes (BTS), as well as the programmes of foreign higher education institutions established in Luxembourg.
The Ministry of Labour is responsible for reskilling and upskilling. It also oversees the Employment Development Agency (Adem), the Standing Committee on Labour and Employment (CPTE) and the Labour Market and Employment Research Network (Retel). As in the case of housing, responsibilities are split up. Will this undermine the coherence of the government's drive to establish a 21st century education system? The question is open. In the meantime, the ministers are moving forward in scattered order. And not at a forced march as in the field of housing.
A year of transition
As far as the Ministry of Education is concerned, "2024 should be a year of transition", to use the words of (CSV), minister of finance, at the presentation of the 2024 budget last March. This does not prevent the ministry's appropriations from increasing by 13% to more than €4bn.
On 29 November 2023, Meisch presented his priorities, continuing the work he has undertaken since 2013 at the head of the ministry. Meisch said the aim is to "adapt education to changes in society - an ongoing challenge - by putting the child at the centre of our action. Helping children is this government's ambition”. For the coming months, his priorities are to set up a "scientific" monitoring system to adapt the education system to the various developments in Luxembourg - and to pursue a policy based on dialogue. In January, under the aegis of the Conseil supérieur de l'Éducation nationale, all stakeholders were consulted.
Pending the conclusions of these discussions and the resulting measures, Meisch's current projects include making the literacy and language-learning system more flexible, bringing the formal training sector closer to the non-formal education sector--which includes crèches, maisons relais (childcare centres) and maisons de jeunes (youth centres)--and improving the quality of education for young people, The aim is to "anchor 21st century skills more firmly in the curriculum and further develop skills as diverse as creativity, collaboration and critical thinking, as well as our multilingualism and digital skills".
New streams in secondary education
At secondary level, subjects such as digitisation, sustainable development, financial education and food are being incorporated. The first step in this direction is Bill 8375 on the reform of traditional secondary education, which was tabled in parliament on 16 April. The aim of the bill is to add to the nine existing sections - modern languages (A), mathematics and computing (B), natural sciences and mathematics (C), economics and mathematics (D) - a new section of secondary school, the natural sciences and mathematics section (C), economics and mathematics section (D), fine arts section (E), music section (F), humanities and social sciences section (G), German-Luxembourg binational section (H), and the information technology and communication section (I) - three new sections: the entrepreneurship, finance and marketing section (N), the cognitive sciences and humanities section (P) and the politics and sustainable development section (R).
Professional training
As for vocational training, it will be upgraded with a broader and more modern offer. With this in mind, the Ministry of Education has tabled Bill 8295 amending the law on general secondary education. Passed on 12 March, the bill entitles employers to financial compensation for each hour of training provided during the employee's working hours, up to the hourly rate of the minimum social wage for unskilled workers. When it comes to continuing training, the Ministry of Labour has a say.
The government agreement devotes an entire section in the "Labour" chapter to employee training, and more specifically to reskilling and upskilling, which "play a decisive role in helping employees adapt to the demands of a changing world of work. The aim is to anticipate the future challenges of the labour market and to respond to the labour shortage in the Luxembourg economy". The Employment Fund budget line has seen its allocation increase from €907.297m to €963.305m (+6.1%). This category includes funds dedicated to vocational training. This is also the budget heading that should include the appropriations earmarked for the implementation of the individual training account.
Individual training accounts
These accounts are part of the European skills strategy adopted by the European Commission in 2020. On this basis, in June 2022, the Council of the EU issued a recommendation that all member states to create such accounts. These accounts are not intended to replace existing training schemes, but to complement them. The mechanism is as follows: a virtual account would be opened for every person of working age, whether employed or self-employed, unemployed or inactive. The account would be credited each year with individual training rights that can be accumulated and portable from one job to the next or between periods of employment, unemployment or inactivity. The challenge for companies is to ensure that this training is geared towards making people employable.
"In order to close the skills gap and develop a long-term strategy for continuing vocational training, a national approach to implementing the Skills Strategy of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will be developed in collaboration with the social partners. A key element of this implementation will be the development of a quality control framework with the establishment of an accreditation authority", states the coalition agreement.
On the ground, it is the professional chambers and Adem that play a key role in training workers. "They will be given the necessary resources to carry out permanent monitoring of the needs of the employment market and to propose programmes tailored to the needs of the various economic sectors for jobseekers, employees and employers.
In-company training will be encouraged and the subsidies paid to companies for continuing training will be evaluated and adapted where necessary. The dual apprenticeship system will be strengthened and extended to more economic sectors. Work placements will be encouraged", reads the coalition agreement. One of the challenges facing Adem - and therefore the Ministry of Labour - should be to ensure that it can use in-company training mechanisms to encourage people to stay in work rather than become unemployed.
Bringing academia and business closer together
Bringing education and training closer together is a strong demand from the business world. And it seems that the agendas are converging. The new rector of the University of Luxembourg, Jens Kreisel, has announced the creation of a fourth interdisciplinary research centre for societal and environmental sustainable development. This will be the fourth research centre to be created, following on from the SnT (Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust), the LCSB (Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine) and C2DH (Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History).
Expectations are also very high regarding the creation of a master's degree in medicine, which would complement the current bachelor's degree and help to keep more doctors in the country. This is a hot topic for Obertin. She can count on a growing budget: her ministry's appropriations for 2024 rose by 7.8% to €673.845m. Of this sum, €184.7m (+15%) is earmarked for student financial aid, €168.7m for study grants and €16m for interest subsidies. The budget allocated to the University rose by 6% to €253.62million. A budget of €454.9m has been released under the agreements for the implementation of research and higher education activities for the years 2022 to 2027 signed with the university, the National Research Fund (FNR) and the public research centres Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), Liser and Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (List).
This article was written for the print edition of Paperjam magazine, published on 9 July. Read the original French version .