As the summer season approaches, this is a great opportunity to take some time for yourself and reflect on your career. A break can indeed spark new aspirations: advancing in your current role, developing new skills, or even completely changing career paths.
Such reflections can arise at various stages of a career. When you feel the need for a change, it’s important to be well informed so you know where to start.
Whether you are an employee, retraining, or looking for a job, moving forward in your career does not mean starting from scratch. Today, there are many options available to learn, progress, and build a plan tailored to your situation.
When it comes to advancing your career, the first key step is often to identify training courses that align with your career plans. Acquiring new skills, strengthening your expertise in a particular field, or learning a new trade can open up a wealth of opportunities; however, you still need to know where to look and how to find a course that suits your goals, your level, and your circumstances.
The national portal for lifelong learning, lifelong-learning.lu, operated by the INFPC, serves as the central hub for finding information and building your training plan in Luxembourg.
It lists over 13,000 training courses offered by nearly 330 member training providers. A wide range of fields related to cross-disciplinary skills and professions, such as languages, IT, software, artificial intelligence, finance, management, and personal and professional development, are covered.
Thanks to the portal's search engine, training courses that match users’ needs can be easily identified using specific filters: training domain, language of instruction, level sought, schedule, location, or type (face-to-face, e-learning, or blended learning).
The portal also offers a search by profession, which is particularly useful for identifying training courses related to the profession in question and thus developing the associated skills or discovering the qualifications available through continuing training linked to that profession.
Because every situation is different, the training programmes are available in a variety of formats to suit everyone's individual circumstances and availability. Evening classes, daytime courses, specific skill levels, distance learning, and courses offered in several languages: there are plenty of options to help you tailor your own training pathway.
To support training plans and help individuals better balance their work and personal lives, various training support schemes are available.
One such scheme is individual training leave, which, subject to certain conditions, allows employees to take time off work to undertake training on an individual basis. This can be a valuable option for employees wishing to develop their skills or prepare for a career move.
Another option is the validation of non-formal and informal learning (VAE), which allows you to capitalise on the skills acquired through your professional and extra-professional experience, with a view to obtaining all or part of a diploma or gaining access to training.
To help people better understand these schemes and identify which ones are suitable for their circumstances, the INFPC regularly organises free information sessions on training support and the VAE, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth, and the various professional chambers.
Advancing your career doesn't necessarily mean changing everything overnight. Developing a new skill, taking a training course, capitalising on your experience, or exploring new opportunities can in itself be a concrete step forward. Whatever your background or circumstances, there are accessible solutions to help you progress at your own pace and gradually build a career path that aligns with your aspirations.
To explore training opportunities and find the one that suits your needs, visit lifelong-learning.lu.
