Individual learning accounts in the 2020s

A high-level event for policymakers, government, educators, and industry

Οn 18 February 2020, ALL DIGITAL, with the support of JP Morgan, organized in Brussels a very important event on “Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) in the 2020s”.

OECD defines ILAs as “virtual, individual accounts in which training rights are accumulated over time. They are virtual in the sense that resources are only mobilised if training is actually undertaken”; OECD states that “ILAs were originally introduced with the objective of boosting individual choice and responsibility with regards to training and to increase competition among training providers and thus the quality and relevance of training provision.”

The new President of European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in her Mission Letter to Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, mentioned ILAs explicitly: “You will lead the work on implementing and updating our skills agenda, focusing on identifying and filling skills shortages and supporting reskilling as part of the just transition. You should explore the idea of individual learning accounts for people of working age, enabling adults to accumulate training entitlements and use them for quality-assured training.”

Renato Sabbadini, the CEO of ALL DIGITAL, opened the event and set the ground for the issues under debate. Then, Nicolas Schmit, the EU Commissioner himself, and OECD Director Stefano Scarpetta delivered very interesting keynote speeches. The former talked about the importance of up-skilling and re-skilling of millions of EU citizens in the next few years (“a revolution”, as he called it), while the latter presented the OECD report titled “ILAs: Panacea or Pandora’s Box”. MEP Eva Maydell, French Minister Antoine Saint-Denis, LLP Director Brikena Xhomagi and Business Europe Senior Advisor Robert Plummer participated in a panel of experts moderated in an excellent way by Hanka Boldemann of JP Morgan Global Philanthropy and debated the importance, usefulness and applicability of ILAs. Prof. Achilles Kameas, Chairman of the Board of ALL DIGITAL took the opportunity to present the role that AD has been playing in the personal and professional development of European citizens regarding digital competences, concluding that “ILAs can prove to be an important business opportunity for AD members, that is why AD is going not only to closely follow the issue, but will become an active player in the coming months”.

The event was attended by approximately 70 people, among them several EU officers, industry representatives and other key stakeholders interested in upskilling, reskilling, digital skills and professional development in general.