An Eldorado for language centres

With three official languages, several well-established foreign communities and an economy that is very internationally oriented, the Grand Duchy offers an unprecedented terrain for language training professionals. The Federation of Training Centers has identified “at least a hundred players”, says Tom Girardin, president of this young federation, which was born out of the earthquake that the pandemic represented for the sector (see box).

Some 50 players are listed on the lifelonglearning.lu platform, run by the National Institute for Continuing Professional Education (INFPC), which lists all available training courses, whether provided by private or public organizations. “Of the more than 10,000 training courses listed on the lifelonglearning.lu website, 16 per cent concern language learning”, explains Anne Oswald, who is in charge of this platform at the INFPC. “This is the first area of training consulted on our platform. This is not surprising in a ‘service-oriented economy’”, she comments. Languages are ahead of personal and professional development, banking, insurance and IT in the searches made by Internet users on the INFPC platform.