Adult education and training is mainly provided in two types of institution : schools and training or education centres.
Social advancement education is provided in 162 institutions for social advancement education (and 234 sites), throughout the territory of the French Community (decree 07/11/2013). Though usually provided in school premises, it may also under certain conditions be provided in workplaces or in any other place where people seeking education can gather. Part-time secondary arts education (ESAHR) is provided in 112 establishments in the French Community, generally known as ‘academies’. Thus these two types of education are largely decentralised.
Training courses for job-seekers and workers are taught in training centres spread throughout the territory, and in some cases include internships in companies. 31 training centres are organised by Forem and 11 by Bruxelles Formation. IFAPME has 8 training centres on 15 sites covering the whole of Wallonia, while EFPME (in the Brussels-Capital Region) consists of three contiguous sites. Job-seekers who enter a vocational training contract with Forem or Bruxelles Formation or with an approved operator benefit from the reimbursement of their travel expenses in particular.
The positioning of further education organisations is not centrally coordinated, but centres tend to be more common in towns and cities. Adult literacy campaigns are organised on a decentralised basis: Lire et écrire had 211 operators for Brussels and Wallonia in 2011 (see Comité de pilotage permanent sur l’alphabétisation des adultes (2013). État des lieux de l'alphabétisation - 6e exercice. Données 2010-2011. Brussels: Ministry of the French Community, p.53). Although the majority of adult literacy education operators (apart from social advancement education providers) are privately established organisations, nearly one-fifth are public or para-public organisations or services (public welfare centres, libraries, etc.).
Finally, distance learning makes it possible, by definition, to follow a training course independently of one’s place of residence, whether in Belgium or even abroad: lessons and assignments are exchanged by post or email. Such courses are accessible in particular to those in hospital, in prison, resident abroad, etc.
At-Risk Groups :
Under the Walloon Government decree of 1 April 2004 (Article 3, 14°), several of the conditions set for the approval of an organisation as an OISP relate to the assessment of beneficiaries, among others: a commitment to devote a minimum of 10% of the training hours by sector, over the duration of training, to psychosocial support and the participatory and formative evaluation of each trainee individually or in groups, to issue annually at least eight thousand hours of training and to accommodate a minimum of six students per sector, from the third year of approval, and to implement, on the one hand, continuous, formative and participatory assessment, and, on the other hand, an audit of achievements in terms of professional skills, be they social or technical.
Likewise in the Brussels-Capital Region (decree of the French Community Commission of 27 April 1995, Article 5), bodies are approved as OISPs and their activities subsidised accordingly for the performance of one or more operations in which assessment plays a part: professional initiation and guidance, consisting of observing the users in a professional training and learning situation in order to identify their physical and intellectual skills and to determine the most appropriate professional orientation. The basic pre-qualifying courses, intended for those who at the start of the activity do not hold the certificate of lower secondary education or any other equivalent diploma, consist in particular of this observation phase.