Adult education and training is mainly provided in two types of institution : schools and training or education centres.

Adult education is provided in 162 institutions for adult 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 111 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. Wallonia has 22 competence centres spread over more than 50 sites and structured around different strategic areas of activity. Their main tasks are vocational training, as well as information and awareness-raising about the jobs of today and tomorrow. The competence centres are anchored in the economic poles of Wallonia and contribute to the competitiveness of businesses. Their priority is to anticipate and respond to the real needs of sectors and companies with state-of-the-art and up-to-date training. They are also technical and technological watch centers on emerging skills and professions. The audiences are very varied : job seekers, workers, pupils, teachers, apprentices and future entrepreneurs. Bruxelles Formation organises its activity through 11 training centres.

IFAPME, the Walloon Institute for Dual Vocational Training and Self-employed and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, is governed by the Decree of 17 July 2003 setting up a Walloon Institute for Dual Vocational Training and Self-employed and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and represents a type 2 Walloon public administration unit (UAP) with management autonomy. IFAPME has 7 accredited non-profit-making training centres, on 17 cities and 24 training sites covering the whole of Wallonia, as well as 17 decentralised dual vocational services. In Brussels, the SME Training Service, depending on the General Administration of Education and depending on the Vocational Training of the French Community Commission (COCOF), is responsible for dual vocational training (middle classes). Courses are organised and localised within the efp. Job-seekers who enter a vocational training contract with Forem or Bruxelles Formation or with an approved operator benefit from an allowance of €2 per hour of training followed and the reimbursement of their travel expenses in particular.

Adult literacy campaigns are organised on a decentralised basis : in 2018, the standing Steering Committee on Adult Literacy identified 226 bodies active in the literacy sector, 110 in Brussels and 116 in Wallonia (Standing Steering Committee on Adult Literacy (2019). State of play of literacy - 8th exercise. 2014-2015-2016 data. Brussels : Ministry of the French Community). Although the majority of adult literacy education operators are privately established non-profit organisations, nearly one-fifth are public or para-public organisations or services (public welfare centres, libraries, etc.). A new data collection to fine-tune the picture of literacy provision started in 2026.

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 :

Since the introduction of the Decree on socio-professional integration centres (10 July 2013), the CISP has been the Centre for Socio-Professional Integration, which replaces the former Work-based Training Enterprises (Entreprises de Formation par le Travail (EFT)) and Socio-Professional Integration Organisations (Organismes d’Insertion Socio-Professionnelle (OISP)). These centres can be non-profit organisations, Public Centre for Social Welfare (CPAS) or associations of CPAS. All work to ensure the training of trainees away from work through the transmission of general and technical skills and the provision of psychosocial support. The socio-professional integration centres (CISP) provide training for trainees away from work. The Wallonia Public Service – Department of Employment and Vocational Training (SPW Emploi Formation) ensures the accreditation and supervision of CISPs.

CISPs use specific pedagogy to enable trainees to acquire general and technical skills, while benefiting from psychosocial support. 
The training courses organised by the CISPs cover in particular the following areas : literacy, upgrading, personal development, building, Horeca (Hospitality, catering and café sector), green professions, personal services, secretarial services and trade. 
CISP training courses have one or other of the following objectives :

• Career orientation : structured pedagogical actions allowing the trainee to consider different alternatives that promote his socio-professional integration as well as actions to design or confirm his professional and personal project ;
• Basic training : general or technical training aimed at acquiring basic knowledge, general and technical skills and behaviours which are useful for socio-professional integration and which are not necessarily linked to a specific occupation ;
• Professional training : training aimed at acquiring the socio-professional knowledge, skills and behaviour necessary for the exercise of a given profession.

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.