In Flanders, Belgium, as in other economies across the OECD, megatrends such as globalisation, digitalisation, climate change and demographic change are reshaping how citizens work and live. COVID‑19 has accelerated the proliferation of digital technologies and has been the impetus for the large‑scale adoption of new working arrangements and practices such as teleworking. Together, these trends are reshaping the skills needed for success in work and society. In this context, lifelong learning is increasingly necessary to ensure that people are adaptable and resilient to changing skills demands. High‑quality and inclusive learning opportunities in formal, non-formal and informal settings should be accessible for everyone to enable full participation in the economy and society.

Flanders has long been committed to the goal of creating a culture of lifelong learning, the importance of which has been reinforced by megatrends and the COVID-19 pandemic. Flanders has an extensive range of policies to support lifelong learning. Still, performance is not as strong as desired. The willingness of adults to learn remains comparatively low, and participation by adults most in need of upskilling and reskilling lags behind.

This chapter describes the outcomes of the OECD Skills Strategy Implementation Guidance project on TheFaces of Learners in Flanders. In this project, the OECD developed a population segmentation that resulted in nine profiles of adult learners based on their shared motivations and obstacles to participate in adult learning. The identification of these representative types of adult learners could help to facilitate the development of policies that are better targeted and tailored to the needs of different learners. The chapter provides an overview of the objectives of the project and the characteristics of the nine profiles. It also summarises the main findings of Chapter 2: The nine adult learner profiles in Flanders, Belgium, and Chapter 3: Policy implications of the nine adult learner profiles in Flanders, Belgium.

This chapter describes the population segmentation methodology used to identify the nine adult learner profiles in Flanders, Belgium. It explains why applying a segmentation approach matters for Flanders, introduces the model and describes in detail the nine adult learner profiles generated based on the shared motivations and obstacles adults face. The nine identified profiles are analysed and compared in detail to provide new insights into adult learning in Flanders.

This chapter provides advice on how to apply the nine adult learner profiles – as described in Chapter 2 – to improve the targeting and tailoring of adult learning policies. Insights from the nine learner profiles can be used to better evaluate, design and implement policies that effectively respond to the needs of people (i.e. that address their motivations for learning and the obstacles they face). In this chapter, specific policy insights for each of the nine profiles are presented, and general policy implications of the adult learner profiles are described.