Monitoring and Research in Luxembourg
Several organisations, associations, committees and exchange networks research and monitor issues related to the VET system and the labour market in general. The Training Observatory of the National Institute for the Development of Continuing Vocational Training (INFPC) for instance has been established in 2012 to treat questions related to the identification of training needs on the labour market and to the transition of young people from VET to the working life.
The Ministry of Education, Children and Youth (MENJE) works with the Ministry of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy (MTE) through the Permanent Committee of Labour and Employment (Comité permanent du travail et de l’emploi). This committee is responsible for regularly reviewing the labour market situation in terms of employment and unemployment in order to prevent mismatches and to increase the employment rate. Its working methods include analysis of job offers and skills demanded by employer profiles and other relevant information in relation to employment, unemployment and VET.
The National Institute for the Development of Continuing Vocational Training (Institut national pour le développement de la formation professionnelle continue - INFPC) has legally established a Training Observatory in 2012. Its mission is to meet the needs of the Government and the social partners, to develop detailed statistical information and to produce and publish reliable qualitative analysis on training issues. The goal is to offer useful insights for public policy and private strategies in the lifelong learning domain. The training observatory also performs a longitudinal study on the transition of VET learners in the final year of a VET programme to the labour market (TEVA study).
The Ministry of Education’s Research and Development Departement (SCRIPT) conducts a recurrent qualitative monitoring of all of the 123 VET curricula. Those are based on curricula analysis and qualitative interviews with employers and recent VET graduates, in order to inform the pilot committee on VET (groupe de pilotage). The analyses are validated and inform curricula committees (équipes curriculaires), responsible for curricula development and update, in order to align both the curricula and the evolving labour market demand.
The Labour and Employment Market Research Network (Réseau d’étude sur le marché du travail et de l’emploi - RETEL) is an initiative of the MTE, which aims to produce studies from existing data in order to improve the overall knowledge base of the labour market situation. The RETEL regularly publishes a dashboard of the labour market. It also organises annual conferences on relevant issues related to the labour market and the employment.
Since 1997, the Business Federation of Luxembourg (FEDIL) conducts a bi-annual survey, in the industrial sector and in the sector of information technology and communication, to explore companies’ skill needs and to balance the vocational training supply and demand. The survey is the basis for the publication “Qualifications of tomorrow” (Les qualifications de demain) which covers a two-year horizon and contains forecasts of companies’ skill requirements in terms of replacements and new positions and the associated qualification levels required. The objective of the study is to provide advice to parents and young persons in their educational choices and to encourage public authorities, professional chambers and other actors in VET to take account of companies’ training needs and to adapt their continuous vocational training activities accordingly.
In order to better understand, anticipate and manage this skills gap, several in-depth analyses of trends in occupations and skills on the Luxembourg market have been initiated by the Ministry of Labour, Employment and the Social and Solidarity Economy (MTEESS) and the national employment agency (ADEM). The sectorial studies are part of ADEM's Future Skills Initiative and the partnership between ADEM and the Luxembourg business federation (Union des entreprises luxembourgeoises). These sector studies cover seven sectors: 1) the financial sector, 2) industry, 3) construction, 4) horesca, 5) trade, 6) transport and logistics, and 7) crafts. For each sector, ADEM collaborated with the respective employers' federations in order to validate the results of the quantitative analyses and to supplement them with qualitative input.