Track training days, employee by employee and per joint committee

How many days you owe depends on how many employees you have, counted in full-time equivalents rather than in heads. The individual training entitlement sits in chapter 12 of the Act of 3 October 2022 containing various labour provisions.

• 20 employees or more: 5 training days a year for a full-time employee.
• 10 to fewer than 20 employees: at least 1 day a year, and you set the number of days your employees are entitled to before 30 September of each year. A collective agreement or a Royal Decree can only increase that number.
• Fewer than 10 employees: you fall outside the Act altogether. You may grant training days, you do not have to.
• You count in full-time equivalents from your NSSO declarations, over the fourth quarter of year n-2 and the first three quarters of year n-1. The result is then fixed for two years, whether or not you hire or lose people in the meantime.
• A sectoral collective agreement may change that number, but never reduce it below two days. That is a floor per employee, not an average across your workforce.
• If the sector or you already granted more than two days, an agreement cannot cut that number either. If no agreement covers it and the employee has no individual training account, the statutory minimum of five days applies.
• Formal and informal training both count, as long as they relate directly to the work, as do trainings on workplace well-being matters.

The training credit does not expire day by day, five years after it accrued. Unused days are carried over at the end of the year into the next year, and may not be deducted from that next year's credit. Only at the end of the five-year period is the available balance set to zero.

That period is fixed: 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028. The reset is collective, for everyone at the same time. An employee who joined on 1 January 2027 and theoretically builds up ten days for 2027 and 2028 also sees the counter go to zero on 1 January 2029. A new five-year period then starts with a fresh credit.

• Inside the cycle: carried over year on year, without reducing the following year's credit.
• At the end of the cycle: balance to zero, no matter which year the days accrued in. Not a rolling per-day expiry, but one fixed date for your whole company.
• If the employment contract ends earlier, the employee must have received the days before that end.

If someone does not work full time, or is not under an employment contract for the whole calendar year, the entitlement is A x B x C. A is the number of training days that applies in your company for a full-time employee, B is that employee's working regime relative to a full-time one, C is the number of months of employment divided by twelve. Every started month counts as a full month.

That is one calculation per employee per year, plus a recalculation at every change of working regime.

• Four-fifths in a company on five days: 5 x 0.8 x 1 = 4 days.
• Full-time, joining on 15 September: 5 x 1 x 4/12 = 1.67 days, because September counts in full.
• If the working regime changes during the year, the entitlement is recalculated on the basis of the current year. Days already taken stay taken: you cannot claw them back.
• A full suspension, such as full-time time credit or thematic leave, does not change the number of days. A reduction of working time runs through a part-time contract, and then the formula does apply.

The Act of 14 January 2026 containing various social provisions repealed the Federal Learning Account. Since 1 January 2026 you can no longer register training or manage training entitlements in it. Sigedis keeps the existing data available up to and including 31 December 2026 and destroys it irrevocably on 1 January 2027: download it before that date.

With that, there is no longer any legal obligation to register your employees' training, and no federal application calculates or stores the balance for you. The employee may still ask for the state of the training credit, and FPS Employment now points them to your HR department. In any dispute about days taken, you fall back on what you recorded yourself.

• It is the employer who has to inform the employee of the entitlement and say how many days are available.
• A sectoral agreement can still impose registration duties: check your own joint committee.

Smart Lions calculates the entitlement per employee and per joint committee, in days, and keeps the balance live: this year's entitlement, carried over from previous years, taken, and what is left until 31 December 2028. You bring employees and their working regime in straight from your social secretariat or HR system.

The figures below assume the statutory five-day entitlement; where your sectoral collective agreement sets a different number, Smart Lions calculates with that number.

• Balance per employee and per joint committee, collective and individual, in days. If you fall under several committees, the entitlement differs from employee to employee.
• Attendance registration, evaluation forms, a training CV per employee and a certification matrix.
• Certificates with expiry dates such as VCA, forklift, BA4/BA5 and first aid, with reminders from Standaard. Cost and budget per training and per employee.
• What you record feeds your training plan straight away and produces the training figures for the training section of your social balance sheet.
• Integrations with Acerta, SD Worx, Securex, Partena, Attentia, Officient, Personio, Protime, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday, BambooHR, HiBob, Deel and Afas.

If you employ 20 people or more, a full-time employee is entitled to five training days a year, unless a sectoral collective agreement made binding by Royal Decree sets a different number. Between 10 and fewer than 20 employees the minimum is one day a year, and you set the number of days your employees are entitled to for that year before 30 September. Employers with fewer than 10 employees are excluded from the Act.

Not at the end of the year: the balance is carried over to the next year and may not be deducted from that year's training credit. But yes at the end of the five-year period, and that is not a rolling expiry per accrued day: FPS Employment states explicitly that the reset happens collectively, for everyone at the same time. The first period runs from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028. An employee who joined on 1 January 2027 and theoretically accrues ten days for 2027 and 2028 therefore also has the counter reset on 1 January 2029. A new five-year period starts then.

With the A x B x C formula in article 50, § 3 of the Act of 3 October 2022: A is the number of training days granted in your company for a full-time employee, B is the employee's working regime relative to a full-time one, and C is the number of months of employment divided by twelve. Every started month counts as a fully worked month. Someone on four-fifths in a company on five days is therefore entitled to four days.

Yes. A sectoral collective agreement made binding by Royal Decree can change the number of training days, but never reduce it below two days. And if the number granted at sector or employer level for a given year was already above two days, an agreement cannot cut it either. Those two days are a floor per employee, not an average across the workforce.

On dismissal for urgent cause, or when the employee resigns, the employee has no right to take the accumulated training credit before the contract ends, and the unused credit increases neither the notice period nor the indemnity in lieu of notice. On a dismissal not attributable to the employee, the credit may be taken before the contract ends, with employer and employee agreeing how; according to FPS Employment, termination by mutual agreement falls under that same case. If the notice period is replaced wholly or partly by an indemnity, the outstanding credit counts as a benefit acquired under the contract: according to FPS Employment it is paid on top of that indemnity rather than included in its calculation basis.

The Act of 14 January 2026 repealed the Federal Learning Account. Since 1 January 2026 you can no longer register training in it and, according to FPS Employment, there is no longer a legal obligation to register employees' training. Sectoral collective agreements may still provide otherwise. In practice you keep records anyway: the employee may ask for the state of the training credit and it is up to you to say how many days are available.

No. According to FPS Employment, paid educational leave and Vlaams opleidingsverlof stand apart from the individual training entitlement: days taken under those schemes do not count towards the four and five day thresholds. You track them separately in Smart Lions from Standaard, together with subsidies such as the kmo-portefeuille and the sector funds.

Import your employees, link them to their joint committee and see at once who still has days open before 31 December 2028. You test the full application for 30 days, then move automatically to the free plan. Try it free for 30 days

• Since 2024 the individual training entitlement is 5 training days a year for a full-time employee.
• Employers with fewer than 10 employees are excluded from the Act.
• Employers with 10 to fewer than 20 employees guarantee at least one training day and set the number of days before 30 September each year; a collective agreement or Royal Decree can only increase it.
• Headcount is counted in full-time equivalents from NSSO declarations over a reference period made up of the fourth quarter of year n-2 and the first three quarters of year n-1.
• Once calculated, the headcount stays fixed for two years.
• The entitlement of a part-time employee, or of an employee not under contract for the whole year, is A x B x C, with every started month counting as a full month.
• A change of working regime during the year triggers a recalculation while days already taken stay taken, and a suspension of the contract does not change the number of days.
• A sectoral collective agreement may change the number of training days but cannot reduce it below two days, nor reduce a number already above two.
• Without a collective agreement and without an individual training account, the statutory minimum of five days a year applies in the company from 2024.
• Unused days are carried over without reducing the next year's credit, and the balance is set to zero at the end of the five-year period, or before the end of the contract if it ends sooner.
• The first five-year period runs from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028, the reset is collective, and it also wipes the balance of employees who joined later.
• On dismissal for urgent cause or resignation the employee loses the right to take the accumulated credit and it does not increase the notice period or the indemnity; on a dismissal not attributable to the employee the credit may be taken before the contract ends.
• FPS Employment holds that the outstanding credit is paid on top of the indemnity rather than in its calculation basis, and that termination by mutual agreement falls under the second paragraph of article 60.
• The Act of 14 January 2026 repealed the Federal Learning Account; the data stays available up to and including 31 December 2026 and is destroyed on 1 January 2027.
• There is no longer a legal obligation to register employees' training, sectoral collective agreements may provide otherwise, and the employee can still ask for the state of the training credit.
• Employees who want to know how many training days they are entitled to have to contact their HR department since 1 January 2026.
• It is the employer who must inform the employee about the entitlement and state how many training days are available.
• Formal and informal training both count, as long as they relate directly to the work, as do trainings on well-being at work.
• Days of paid educational leave or Vlaams opleidingsverlof do not count towards the four and five day thresholds.