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Build your training plan without Excel

Build a legally compliant training plan every year, track every training and meet your Belgian training obligations. Smart Lions automates the administration end to end.

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Sound familiar?

  • Training data is scattered across Excel, inboxes and folders
  • No clear view of who has completed which training — and who still needs to
  • Stress whenever inspections, audits or sectoral training fund queries come up
  • Uncertainty about statutory obligations and individual training rights

The real deadline is 1 March, not 31 March

Everyone quotes 31 March. That is the day the content of your training plan has to be settled, not the day you start on it. Two consultation steps sit in front of it, each with its own deadline. Count backwards and the real starting point is late February.

  • Late February: draft finished and sent. You put the draft to the works council at least fifteen days before the meeting called to examine it. If you want the advice by 15 March, the draft has to leave your desk in late February. The regulator says the same thing in other words: the draft must be communicated "during the first quarter of the year and in any case no later than the beginning of March".
  • Early March: the meeting. The works council examines the draft. If there is no works council it goes to the union delegation; if there is no delegation either, you put the plan to your employees directly.
  • 15 March: the advice. The works council, or failing that the union delegation, gives its advice by 15 March at the latest. If you have neither, 15 March is the date by which you must have put the plan to your employees.
  • 31 March: content settled. Only once the consultation has taken place and the advice is in do you settle the content. The statute says "before 31 March", the regulator says "no later than 31 March". Take the stricter reading and be ready on 30 March.
  • Within one month of entry into force: copy to the FOD WASO. A separate obligation on its own clock, not pinned to 31 March. You send a copy electronically through transfer.werk.belgie.be, having first anonymised your employees' personal data. Filing with your sectoral fund alone does not count.

So put 1 March in the calendar, not 31 March. Start on 15 March and the advice window has already closed.

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What do we mean by "training management"?

Training management in Smart Lions is the central system where you:

Everything in one place, always audit-ready.

When you don't need us

If Liantis is your social secretariat, you already have a working tool. Liantis offers "Opleidingsplan" free inside My Liantis, under the "Opleidingen" tile: you mark which type of training, which themes and which risk groups you are covering, and you have a plan you can file. For a twenty-five person company, with one plan a year and no heavy sectoral requirements, that is enough. Use it.

By its own description the tool records your plan, and stops there. It does not work out the training entitlement in days per paritair comité, does not track certificates and their expiry dates, and does not produce the training figures for your sociale balans (NBB codes 5801 to 5853). And it lives in My Liantis, so you have it for as long as Liantis is your social secretariat.

The difference in one sentence: Liantis solves the plan, we solve the year that comes after it.

Ready to make training management easier?

Less admin, more clarity — and fully compliant with the law?

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How other companies handle this

Twenty Belgian employers use Smart Lions for their training plan — click a logo to read how they do it.

Already using Smart Lions:

LVD is a global player in the design and manufacture of sheet metalworking equipment. For a manufacturer in joint committee (paritair comité) 111/209, the training plan, the training entitlement and the training section of the social balance sheet come out of the same record.

Vanderscheuren has been Belgium's go-to metalworking company since 1957.

For 190 years, Rogers has been a global leader in engineered materials that power, protect and connect our world.

Donaldson is a global leader in filtration systems and technologies. For an industrial manufacturer in joint committee (paritair comité) 111/209, the training plan, the training entitlement and the training section of the social balance sheet come out of the same record.

Profel is a Belgian family business with over 75 years of experience in custom-made windows and doors.

ArcelorMittal is the world's largest steel and mining company, specialising in the production of high-quality steel for a wide range of industries.

Logi-technic is a Belgian technical outsourcing company that deploys over 450 top technicians on a wide range of technical projects.

Devagro is een bouwbedrijf dat sinds 1989 gespecialiseerd is in duurzame aannemingen, infrastructuur- en grondwerken, betonoplossingen, recyclage, afbraak en bodemsanering. 

GEA is een internationale technologie- en machinebouwgroep die systemen, componenten en procesoplossingen levert voor vooral de voedings-, drank- en farmaceutische industrie.

Stageco is een Belgisch bedrijf dat wereldwijd podia en tijdelijke structuren ontwerpt en bouwt voor concerten, festivals, sport- en bedrijfsevenementen.

Orona is een Europese specialist in verticale mobiliteit die in België liften, roltrappen, hellingbanen en rolpaden ontwerpt, installeert, onderhoudt en moderniseert.

More about the rules

Which joint committee (paritair comité) applies to your business?

You can usually find your company's joint committee (paritair comité) in a matter of seconds: it appears on your employees' payslips and in the declaration your payroll agency (sociaal secretariaat) files with the National Social Security Office (RSZ) each quarter. Each joint committee (PC) has a unique number — for example PC 200 for white-collar employees or PC 124 for the construction sector — assigned on the basis of your company's main activity. That number determines not only the minimum wages and working conditions in your sector, but also which sector fund finances training and which additional cao training days you must grant your employees.If you already know your joint committee, you will find the link to the corresponding training offer further down. If you are still unsure, or want to understand why that number actually matters, this guide explains how the joint committees are structured, how to look up the correct number, and what the "residual" committees 100 and 200 actually mean.

How many training days are you legally required to provide?

From twenty employees, every full-time employee is federally entitled to at least five training days per year (this was still four days in 2023); with ten to nineteen employees, a federal minimum of one training day per year per full-time employee applies, and below ten employees federal law imposes no minimum. These are the federal minimum rules: the actual number depends on your joint committee (paritair comité), because sectoral collective agreements (cao's) may deviate from them. If an employee works part-time, the number of days is calculated pro rata. This individual training right was introduced by the law of 3 October 2022 (the 2022 labour deal, or Arbeidsdeal) and is separate from, but closely linked to, the obligation to draw up an annual training plan.If an employee does not use all of their training days in a given year, they are not lost: they carry over to the next year as training credit. That credit runs in fixed five-year periods, though — the first from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2028 — and at the end of each period every employee's balance is reset to zero collectively. Both formal training (courses and training sessions with an instructor) and informal learning (coaching, self-study, onboarding by a colleague) count, as long as they are work-related — wellbeing training also qualifies.In this guide you will read, per company size, how many days you must provide, what happens to unused days, when sectoral collective agreements deviate, and how this right relates to the training plan and the announced individual learning account.

The mandatory training plan: what must you do as an employer?

Does your company have 20 or more employees? Then, since the 2022 labour deal (Arbeidsdeal, the law of 3 October 2022), you are required to draw up an annual training plan, adopted by 31 March at the latest. The plan lists the formal and informal training you plan to provide that year, with specific attention to shortage occupations, the gender dimension and at-risk groups. You first discuss the draft with the works council or trade union delegation, and then file the final plan with the FPS Employment (FOD Werkgelegenheid).The precise content requirements follow from the royal decree of 14 July 2024. Employers with fewer than 20 employees are exempt from this formal planning obligation. In this guide you will see who the obligation applies to, which deadlines you must meet, what exactly the plan must contain and how to organise the consultation correctly.