Forecasting system(s)

Walloon Region

The missions of the Walloon public service for employment and training, Forem, are defined in the management agreement 2022 - 2027 between the Walloon Government and the Walloon Office for vocational training and employment.

One of the missions of the Walloon public service for employment and training, Forem, is to analyse the labour market and the training supply.

The Forem’s service in charge of this mission is the “service of analyse of labour and training market” which is working independently from others services in order to ensure objectivity.

The service conducts prospective studies on the evolutions of the labour market.

Every year, this service publishes a shortage occupations list (2023).

As main outputs, the service:

• publishes its studies on the Forem’s website ;
• publishes “information papers” about occupations needed in the Walloon labour market on the Forem’s website. It contains information about the job, the skills needed, the education or training leading to the job qualification ;
• prepares recommendations for the Forem’s board of directors and for the Minister of Employment and Training.

The Forem publishes its studies on its website and disseminates the occupation shortage list in the press.

The service has to cooperate with the “Walloon Institute for evaluation, prospective and statistic” (IWEPS) by sharing primary data’s collected and by creating a cooperation programme. This programme aims at strengthening the common actions and developing useful collaborations with others specialised organisations.

Region Brussels-Capital

For Brussels, the body in charge of skills forecasting is the Brussels Observatory for Employment (Observatoire Bruxellois de l’Emploi). Its mission is to follow the employment evolutions and unemployment in the Region Brussels-Capital.  The Observatory analyses topics related to changes and transformations specific to labour market.

One of its main objectives is to develop tools to identify the expected future skill or qualification requirements. It publishes the information on the Actiris website.   

The Observatory was created in 1995 and is co-funded by the European Social Fund. 

Skills development

The indications from forecasting system are used by Forem to adapt its internal and external services (training, coaching, etc.).

The Employment National Office (ONEM) grants “specific permission” to unemployed persons who undertake studies or training preparing for a job listed on the occupation shortage list. This measure allows job seekers to keep their right to receive unemployment compensation while being permitted to not respect some of their obligations (allowed to refuse a job offer, not being available for work, not being registered as job seeker).