OECD Skills Strategy Implementation Guidance for Flanders, Belgium

Annex B. Engagement activities

The project team

At the start of the project, Flanders established a project team with representation from key departments and organisations in Flanders. The project team functioned as steering committee for the project, including by providing comments on the report and several extensive discussions at different stages of the project. Because of the specific focus on the profiling and segmentation of the adult learning population, a multidisciplinary composition was established, with representation from the following organisations:

• Department for Work and Social Economy (Departement Werk en Sociale Economie)

• Department for Education and Training (Departement Onderwijs en Vorming)

• Agency for Higher Education, Adult Education, Qualifications and Scholarships (Agentschap voor Hoger Onderwijs, Volwassenenonderwijs, Kwalificaties en Studietoelagen – AHOVOKS)

• Flemish Service for Employment and Vocational Training (Vlaamse Dienst voor Arbeidsbemiddeling en Beroepsopleiding – VDAB)

• Centre of Expertise for Labour market Monitoring (CELM – Steunpunt Werk )

• LinkedIn

• Social and Economic Council of Flanders (Sociaal-Economische Raad van Vlaanderen – SERV)

• Flemish Statistical Authority (Vlaamse Statistische Autoriteit – Statistiek Vlaanderen)

• General Christian Trade Union (Algemeen Christelijk Vakverbond/Confédération des Syndicats chrétiens – ACV-CSC)

• Catholic Education Flanders (Katholiek Onderwijs Vlaanderen)

• Team behavioural insights, Department of Chancellery and Foreign Affairs (Team gedragsinzichten, Departement Kanselarij en buitenlandse zaken)

• Flemish Education Council (Vlaamse Onderwijsraad – VLOR)

• Partnership of Lifelong Learning (Partnerschap Levenslang Leren)

The consultations

Two consultations helped to: 1) raise awareness and visibility of the project and its objectives; 2) facilitate constructive dialogue between government actors and stakeholder; 3) provide insights to inform the analysis; and 4) help to build a shared commitment to the implementation of recommended actions.

Consultations on segmenting the adult learning population – April-May 2021

On 30 April 2021, a workshop was organised for the project to discuss a first draft of the segmentation of the Flemish adult learning population – comprising 12 groups based on participation, motivation, obstacles to learn and other characteristics – and to evaluate the implications of this segmentation for lifelong learning policies. The workshop was attended by 65 representatives from a broad range of Flemish institutions, as well as the European Commission, with over 30 participants actively engaging in discussions.

The workshop included speeches by several high-level officials, including Wim Adriaens (Managing Director, VDAB) and Ans De Vos (Chair of the Lifelong Learning Partnership). In the main OECD presentation, the OECD introduced the project and presented the segmentation and other initial findings from the analysis. The workshop discussions took place in two main breakout room sessions, one on “segmenting the adult learning population” and one on “policy implications and additional opportunities”. The OECD received broad consensus for its approach, and received many relevant suggestions on how to further improve the segmentation and ideas on how to bring the project forward. In addition to the workshop, the OECD organised a project team meeting on 7 May 2021 to discuss the findings from the workshop and to build consensus on how to incorporate feedback into the project moving forwards.

Consultations on the policy implications of the segmentation – October-November 2021

On 29 October 2021, the OECD Centre for Skills organised a workshop for the Implementation Guidance project on “Strengthening lifelong learning policies through segmentation” with the Flemish Government. The event was attended by 60 representatives from a broad range of Flemish institutions, as well as the European Commission. The aim of this workshop was to discuss how insights from the segmentation could be used to improve adult learning.

In the workshop, opening remarks were provided by Ans De Vos (Chair of the Flemish Lifelong Learning Partnership) and Carlo Scatoli from the European Commission. In the main OECD presentation, the project was introduced and the nine adult learner profiles and their characteristics were presented. The workshop discussions took place in three breakout room sessions on “the segmentation and relevant types of policy”, “information/guidance and the segmentation”, and “learning incentives and the segmentation”. These discussions were stimulated by lists of potential policy actions and the outcomes of a pre-workshop survey. This resulted in discussions on how the segmentation could help to inform Flemish adult learning policies and initiatives, and provided relevant suggestions on how to move the project forward.