To help employees manage their individual training rights, the Federal Public Service Employment in Belgium has developed a training account called the "Federal Learning Account" (FLA).
The FLA is a digital application providing employees an overview of their individual training rights. Indeed, employees and employers can use it to track which training courses employers have offered and which training courses employees have taken. Each time an employee takes a training course, the number of training days taken is entered in the individual training account as soon as possible.
Employees have the right, at any time and upon simple request, to consult their individual training account and make changes to it, by mutual agreement with their employer. At least once a year, the employer must inform the requesting employees of the training credit balance and remind the employees of their right to consult their individual training account and their right to correct any errors.
For each calendar quarter and at the latest within the month following the end of the quarter, the employer must record the training undertaken, the basic characteristics of the training (such as start, end, nature, outcome and, if applicable, funding) and the number of associated training days. In addition, the employer must also check the data recorded or calculated by others (the training provider or "Sigedis," discussed below) and amend or supplement them if necessary.
The government itself will also register and calculate some data in the FLA. This task will be entrusted to the public non-profit organization Sigedis. Sigedis will enter the personal data in the FLA and also calculate the initial training entitlement per employee and per calendar year, as well as the remaining balance of outstanding training entitlements.
The employee will be able to consult the FLA electronically here. The FLA has been available since April 1, 2024. In principle, employers must register which training courses employees have attended by December 1, 2024.
Incidentally, once a quarter, Sigedis compiles a list of employers that did not fulfil some well-defined obligations regarding the FLA in the previous quarter. Sigedis notifies the employers, via eBox, which particular obligation(s) they have not met and, to the extent possible, the reasons for this. If, within 30 calendar days from the date of the notification, the employer complies with the obligation(s) in this notification, Sigedis removes this employer from the list.
Non-compliance with the Federal Learning Account rules may result in sanctions under the Social Penal Code.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.