In a rapidly changing world of work, both companies and employees must constantly adapt. Digitalisation, technological shifts, the ecological transition, the evolution of professions: all these challenges require continuous skills development.

Professional training is more than ever a strategic investment, essential for ensuring performance, competitiveness and employability.

The professional landscape in Luxembourg is undergoing profound change. Employees are increasingly required to update or enhance their knowledge, acquire new qualifications or adapt to digital tools.

For companies, having a skilled and agile workforce is crucial to sustaining growth. For employees, training is key to maintaining or strengthening employability in a constantly evolving labour market.

To understand how companies can structure their training strategy, it is essential to look first at the mechanisms available to support skills development:  Gestion Prévisionnelle de l’Emploi et des Compétences (GPEC) [Forward-looking Management of Jobs and Skills] and Institut national pour le développement de la formation professionnelle continue (INFPC)  [National Institute for the Development of Continuing Vocational Training] co‑funding.

How companies can finance professional training

1 | GPEC co-funding

The Law of 19 June 2025 introduced a new mechanism in Luxembourg, the forward-looking management of jobs and skills (GPEC).

This law aims to support companies facing major transformations in their professions (digitalisation, ecological transition, new regulatory standards or societal changes) and to promote the upskilling or reskilling of employees.

To implement GPEC in practice, ADEM (the Luxembourg’s National Employment Agency) has developed a national programme: Skills-Plang.

This programme pursues several clear objectives:

• Anticipate structural changes in professions;
• Strengthen the long-term employability of employees;
• Prevent unemployment through tailored training pathways;
• Support the competitiveness of companies by adapting internal skills.

Which companies are eligible?

To qualify, companies must:

• have their registered office in Luxembourg;
• have been carrying out real business activity for at least 3 years;
• not be in economic difficulty under the EU Regulation;
• demonstrate a significant transformation of their activities (digitalisation, ecological transition, regulatory changes, etc.).

Which employees are concerned?

Eligible employees must have at least 12 months of service, hold a position affected by market developments, and require at least 120 hours of training to adapt or retrain.

How does the procedure work?

Once the employer submits an application to ADEM and it is deemed admissible, the first step is the intervention of an accredited consultant. This consultant analyses the company’s situation, identifies the professions affected by market changes, conducts forward-looking assessments, meets with the employees concerned and works with the employer to develop a structured training plan. This plan must then be presented to the staff delegation before being submitted to ADEM for approval.

After validation, the company enters the implementation phase, which may last up to 24 months. Training must be delivered by approved providers and must strictly follow the validated plan. Employees must participate diligently, and the company may continue to receive support from its consultant throughout the programme.

What financial support is available?

To support these sometimes substantial efforts, the Employment Fund provides co‑funding in 2 stages: preparation of the plan and its implementation.
The amounts vary depending on company size, reaching up to 75% of preparation costs for small businesses, and covering a significant share of direct training costs and participants’ salaries.

In short, this is a strategic tool helping Luxembourg companies adapt to future challenges while securing employees’ career paths. An innovative mechanism combining anticipation, tailored training and public co‑funding to meet the rapid transformations of the labour market.

2 | INFPC co-funding

Companies can benefit from training co‑funding provided by the INFPC, provided they establish a structured training plan. This plan helps identify skills needs and the actions required to address them. Since 2018, this financial support has corresponded to 15% of the company’s annual investment in training.

Certain categories of employees entitle the employer to a 20% increase in the reimbursable salary cost of participants, notably employees without a recognised qualification and with less than 10 years of service, as well as employees aged over 45 at the start of the training plan.

The INFPC also applies an investment ceiling based on company size:

• 20% of payroll for companies with 1–9 employees;
• 3% of payroll for companies with 10–249 employees;
• 2% of payroll for companies with more than 249 employees.

In practical terms, this means that for a company with 100 employees, INFPC reimbursement will be limited to 15% of 3% of payroll, even if the company invests more than 3% of its payroll in training.

The training budget includes the:

• salaries of participants and internal trainers;
• fees charged by external training providers;
• travel, accommodation and meal expenses linked to training activities.

This process requires rigorous administrative organisation, particularly the preparation of a complete file (invoices, attendance records and supporting documents), which must be submitted before 31 May of the following year. Securex can support you throughout these steps.

INFPC co‑funding remains the most widely used mechanism among Luxembourg companies to finance continuing training. While Skills-Plang supports deeper transformation projects, INFPC remains the flexible, everyday tool that HR departments rely on to fund regular and recurring training initiatives.

How employees can take initiative in their own training

Alongside company‑driven mechanisms, several schemes also allow employees to take charge of their own professional development. These individual measures complement HR initiatives and contribute to a more global and agile approach to skills management.

1 | Individual training leave

Individual training leave is one of the most frequently used schemes by employees wishing to develop their skills or pursue a personal career project. HR departments often deal with such requests, particularly to verify eligibility conditions and organise the employee’s absence.

This special leave allows employees to undertake training, obtain a qualification, improve their skills or even prepare for a career change.

To be eligible, employees must:

• normally work at a workplace located in Luxembourg;
• be employed under a contract with a company or association legally established and active in the Grand Duchy;
• have at least 6 months of service with their employer at the time of the request.

The application is submitted using the form available on guichet.lu, which the employee forwards to the employer for their opinion. The employer may request a postponement once only, and solely if the absence would seriously disrupt the company’s operations.

The leave is calculated based on the number of training hours and may reach up to 80 days over an entire career. During this period, the employee receives a compensatory allowance equivalent to their average daily wage, capped at 4 times the unskilled minimum social wage (i.e. €10,814.96 at index 968.04). The employer is then fully reimbursed by the State. 

For HR departments, individual training leave is a key tool for supporting employees’ personal development projects while benefiting from full reimbursement of the allowances paid.

2 | Linguistic leave

In a more specific context, linguistic leave aims to encourage the learning and mastery of the Luxembourgish language. The eligibility conditions are identical to those of individual training leave.

This scheme allows employees to benefit from up to 200 hours of training over their career, divided into two blocks of 80 and 120 hours. The leave may be split, with a minimum duration of half an hour per day.

For each day of leave, the employee receives from their employer a compensatory allowance corresponding to their average daily wage, capped at 4 times the unskilled minimum social wage (i.e. €10,814.96 at index 968.04).

The advantage of this linguistic leave lies in the fact that the employer may be reimbursed for 50% of the compensatory allowance paid to the employee, as well as for the employer’s share of social security contributions.

3 | Unpaid training leave

For employees wishing to undertake long-term training, unpaid training leave offers another valuable opportunity.

It allows them to be absent for up to 6 consecutive months (with a cumulative maximum of 2 years with the same employer) while retaining the right to return to their position.

Accessible after two years of service, this leave must be requested in writing, either by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt or by hand-delivered letter, also with acknowledgement of receipt. The request must specify the type of training, its duration, the training provider and the intended period(s). The employer may postpone the start of the leave for duly justified organisational reasons.

The employee must respect a notice period of 2 months when the leave requested is less than 3 months, and 4 months when the requested duration is 3 months or more.

Throughout the entire leave period, the employee retains the right to return to their position.

For HR departments, this type of leave provides a clear framework for supporting retraining projects or long-term studies, while ensuring a structured approach to managing the employee’s return to work.

Conclusion

Taken together, these mechanisms provide companies and their employees in Luxembourg with a comprehensive and coherent ecosystem for developing skills, whether initiated by the employer or by the employee.

On the one hand, structuring mechanisms such as GPEC and its national programme Skills-Plang support the most significant transformation projects, while INFPC co‑funding remains the essential, everyday tool for financing traditional continuing training. On the other hand, the various training leave schemes enable employees to take an active role in their own development, whether pursuing a personal professional project, learning Luxembourgish or undertaking long-term studies.

For HR departments, this toolkit is invaluable: it enables them to anticipate changes in professions, support individual initiatives and foster skills development in an agile way. Professional training becomes a strategic pillar.

Thanks to State financial support, these mechanisms offer a unique opportunity to combine talent development, employee engagement and organisational competitiveness in an ever‑evolving environment.