Description
Country
Focus area
The instrument aims to provide online courses to adults who wish to improve existing skills or learn new ones. The instrument aims to help working adults to stay employable and active on the labour market by giving them easily accessible options to learn skills across a broad variety of subject areas.
Link
Reference/weblink
Implementation level
At what level is the initiative implemented?
Regional
Legal base
Legal base (E.g. Law, regulation, implementing provision, other)
This is an initiative by the Flemish public employment service, the VDAB.
Starting period
TIMESPAN: In what year did the initiative commence?
This initiative was planned as early as 1999. This measure in its current form was introduced and fully operational in 2007.
Perspective
PERSPECTIVE: is the initiative based on evidence derived from skill forecasts or foresight activities?
Broadly speaking the initiative is based on the forecast that digitalization and automatization will greatly affect needed competencies in the future which in 2019 as was articulated in the 2019 Flemish government coalition agreement.
Policy area
To which POLICY AREAS(s) does the initiative apply?
Funding
How it is funded?
Other
Funded by the PES itself, VDAB is the initiating organisation and is responsible for the funding, design and delivery of the online courses.
Skill mismatch
Skill mismatch target
What type(s) of skills MISMATCH does the initiative aim to addresses?
Skills obsolescence (some or all of an individual's skills are no longer relevant to the current employer or in the labour market generally)
Skills matching focus
How does the initiative address skills mismatches?
The instrument provides workers with the tools to improve their own skills and competences and thus their employability. The VDAB provides the courses easily and it is made accessible to working adults as well in that they are available online.
The instrument provides job seekers with the tools to improve their own skills and competences and thus their employability. The VDAB provides the courses easily and it is made accessible to working adults as well in that they are available online.
Skills delivered
What types of skill does the initiative deliver?
The initiative delivers a broad range of skills depending on the course chosen. In the development of new courses in 2019 there was a focus on digitalization regarding the development of new courses and adjusting courses
Basic literacy and numeracy skills
Basic digital skills
More advanced digital skills
General employability skills (team working, communication, etc.)
Green skills
Job search skills
Methods
Methods
What methods of undertaking skills assessments and / or skills anticipation does the policy instrument utilise?
Other
The main rationale for this instrument is to improve the competences and employability of workers and job seekers in Flanders. It makes use of LMSI available to VDAB and the courses are created in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders.
Use of skills intelligence
How is labour market information / skills intelligence used within the initiative?
new online courses are developed at the hand of LMI on professions/sectors in which there are shortages of workers
The available LMI dictates on which topics courses are developed and provided
Stakeholders
Main responsible body
Main body or organisation with overall responsibility for the initiative.
Regional PES
VDAB, Flanders PES
Other involved organisations
Which other organisations have a role in the initiative?
Competence organisations and partner schools and education institutions and social partners are involved in designing the courses and materials. This is done in collaboration with the VDAB who then takes and keeps full responsibility for the courses and provides participants with recognized certificates of completion.
Social partner: employer organisation
Social partner: trade union
Training Providers
Research centres, universities
Beneficiaries
Who are the intended beneficiaries?
Adults in employment with upskilling potential
The intended beneficiaries are employed people (as part of the life long learning programme) who can sign up for online courses for free of the decide to do so. In 2019 approximately 33%of the participants in the courses was employed
Adults in employment with reskilling potential
The intended beneficiaries are employed people (as part of the life long learning programme) who can sign up for online courses for free of the decide to do so. In 2019 approximately 33%of the participants in the courses was employed
Other
Job seekers are also intended beneficiaries of the online courses. In 2019 approximately 66% of the participants in the courses were job seekers
Sustainability
Success factors
SUCCESS FACTORS in the implementation
The continuous focus on improving the catalogue of courses available, their integration in employment services offered, and the fact that the course are free, are key success factors. Additionally, for most courses no papers or downloadable items are required so that individuals can easily access and pick up the course at their own pace and at their own convenience.
Monitoring and evaluation
MONITORING and EVALUATION: Is progress measured regularly? What are the indicators used to measure progress of the policy instrument? Have any evaluations been conducted?
The VDAB monitors the number of people who take part in different online courses on a continuous basis and checks the number of participants four times a year. Due to the pandemic there was a rise in participants, between March and August 2020, more than 52,000 unique trainees registered with VDAB for online training.
Updates
UPDATES: whether there have been any major updates of the initiative since it has been implemented?
No
The catalogue of courses is regularly updated and expanded with new courses based on current labour market trends and skills for the future. In 2019, VDAB developed 34 new or renewed online courses in various fields, including business support logistics, retail and accountancy and range of videos was expanded significantly with 11 new interviews and 37 new instructional videos for the construction and digitalisation sectors. The latest available information states that in 2020, 72 completely new courses have been added, 104 courses received an update and were completely renewed and 176 new modules were added. Currently VDAB offers over 300 online courses and 116 online workshops
Effectiveness
EVIDENCE ON EFFECTIVENESS: How effective is the policy instrument?
The VDAB provides information on the performance of the online courses in their annual report (the most recent available report dates 2019). In 2019 75,2% of registered job seekers indicated they were satisfied with the e-learning possibilities. In 2019 49982 people followed an online course and 9.486 people followed an online workshop. Information about the first half of 2020 indicate over 90.000 people enrolled for an online course
Sustainability
SUSTAINABILITY: How sustainable is the policy instrument? Do you expect the instrument to continue over the next few years and why?
The online courses are a very sustainable initiative and due to the Corona pandemic online courses have taken off and more people have followed online course than ever before. Having reached the initial agreement from social partners to contribute and collaborate in developing online courses which will be offered for free by the VDAB, there is a good working system in place. The initial costs of setting up the platform have also been made. As such the collaboration can, barring any major incidents, continue, and financial resources centre on maintaining the digital platform and the content of the online courses. Given the utility of the measure there does not seem to be any reason to expect the instrument to stop in the near future.
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