March 31 is getting closer, don't forget your training plan!

Since 2023, every employer with at least 20 employees is required to prepare an annual training plan. This training plan must be prepared by March 31 each year.  

As the deadline for the year 2024 approaches, in this article we would like to briefly set out the outlines regarding such a training plan. 

What's in a name?  

The training plan is a means of identifying the training needs of your employees. Specifically, it is a document in which the trainings be listed, as well as the team / the target of workers for whom they are intended.  

Although as an employer you decide what training is included, there are some minimum requirements which must be incorporated into the plan:  

• The training plan must include, at a minimum, the formal and informal training include those you want to offer.  
• You should pay due attention to gender dimension.  
• Finally, the training plan should also provide for a particular focus on certain high-risk groups (e.g., workers aged 50 or older, workers with disabilities, bottleneck occupations...).   

Which employers should prepare a training plan?  

Providing a training plan is only mandatory if you at least 20 employees employs.  

To verify that your company has at least 20 employees, take into account the number of full-time equivalents declared on the last day of a period of 4 consecutive quarters. This count is always done on the level of the legal body (and therefore not the technical business unit).   

Specifically, the number of employees on the last day of the following quarters should be considered for 2024:  

• Oct. 1, 2022 to Dec. 31, 2022;  
• January 1, 2023 through March 31, 2023;  
• April 1, 2023 through June 30, 2023;  
• July 1, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2023. 

Now how do you set up this training plan?  

It is important on the one hand to start from the training needs of your employees and, on the other hand, see which mandatory courses already exist within your company. Also consider which audiences are present within the company. Once you've analyzed these things, you can start choosing targeted training and put together the training plan.  

In doing so, as an employer, you must also always consider the internal social dialogue respect. If your company has no works council or union delegation, submit the training plan to your employees against no later than March 15.  

The definitive version of the training plan must be completed no later than March 31 are established.  

As an employer, you also determine free the form of the training plan, unless your sector would have established certain minimum requirements.  

Finally, the training plan may just kept within your company become. Employees (and their representatives, if any) can then access the training plan upon simple request. It is not mandatory for now to create a copy of your training plan to the government agencies, since the competent official is not currently designated.  

Sanctions 

The regulations include no specific penalty For not preparing a training plan.  

However, as an employer, you do risk a penalty of level 1 If you do not comply with a collective bargaining agreement declared generally binding in your sector regarding the training plan. This can result in an administrative fine of between EUR 80 and EUR 8,000 (to be multiplied by the number of employees involved).  

Federal Learning Account (FLA). 

As of April 1, 2024 you as an employer will be required to register the individual training rights of your employees online through the so-called "Federal Learning Account" (FLA). Through this digital application - developed and implemented by Sigedis - each employee will be able to check at any time how many training days / training hours he/she still has that year, as well as which training courses he/she has already taken.  

A lot of information will be collected by the government and processed in this application. However, as an employer, you will be required - each time no later than 1 month after the end of each quarter - to enter some data into the FLA:  

• The total number of training days on which an employee straight has in a given year;  
• The number of training days attended and the courses taken, as well as the beginning and end of the course, the subject and some other basic data;  
• The outstanding training credit.  

As of April 1, 2024 - when the FLA will normally be operational - you as an employer will have 6 months to register all necessary data of all your employees. It is therefore advisable to start keeping accurate records of training rights in your company now.