Advancing Adult Skills through Individual Learning Accounts

By leveraging digital platforms, ILAs can also serve as a one‑stop shop for both financing and accessing training opportunities. These platforms not only distribute training credits under ILA schemes but can also consolidate additional contributions from individuals, employers, and public bodies into a single pool of funding. For example, in France, the public employment service can provide top-up funding through the ILA portal for job seekers who lack prior employment history or have insufficient credit. In this way, ILAs help streamline existing adult learning financing mechanisms. ILA platforms can also curate and centralise training options from a wide range of adult learning providers, making it easier for individuals – including those not eligible for ILA funding – to navigate available learning opportunities. Positioned at the intersection of education and employment policies, ILAs can further foster collaboration among diverse stakeholders, including government ministries, employers, trade unions, training providers, and learners themselves.

A key feature of ILAs is the autonomy they grant individuals in choosing their training without prior validation from a counsellor. This flexibility not only empowers learners but also reduces the administrative burden on implementing bodies. However, it presents challenges for policymakers in deciding which types of training should qualify for public support. ILAs are increasingly designed to promote labour-market-relevant learning, with eligibility criteria often shaped by qualification and occupational standards, as seen in countries such as Croatia, France, and Singapore. Yet determining what counts as job-relevant training can be subjective and context-dependent. For example, a language course might be essential in one profession but considered personal development in another. To ensure ILAs are effective in meeting their policy goals, policymakers must carefully balance individual choice with strategic funding priorities. This includes regularly reviewing and updating eligibility criteria to reflect evolving labour market needs. Co-payment requirements, present in the Czech and French schemes, can encourage learners to make more deliberate training choices by giving them a financial stake in the process. However, such contributions should remain modest to avoid creating barriers to participation, particularly for disadvantaged groups.

Robust quality assurance mechanisms are equally important to safeguard public investment and ensure that training leads to meaningful outcomes. They help prevent fraud, misuse, and price inflation, while ensuring that supported courses meet minimum quality standards. In Lithuania, for example, a new programme evaluation system was developed under the ILA scheme for non-formal education and training providers, who are generally subject to less stringent oversight. However, overly rigid requirements risk stifling innovation, reducing responsiveness to emerging skill needs – particularly in fast-evolving sectors – and discouraging participation from a diverse range of providers, especially during early implementation.

While ILAs help reduce financial barriers to adult learning, they may not be sufficient on their own to incentivise upskilling and reskilling, particularly among underrepresented groups. Non-financial barriers, such as time constraints and limited awareness of opportunities, continue to hinder participation in adult learning. To maximise the impact of ILAs, complementary measures are essential, including paid training leave, recognition of prior learning, and tailored career guidance to support informed decision-making. ILAs can also be designed to cover the costs of services such as career counselling and recognition of prior learning, further enhancing their effectiveness. ILAs provide financial incentives for training providers to promote their courses, but proactive outreach by public authorities – both online and offline – remains critical to reaching a broad and diverse population of learners. For instance, Singapore hosts an annual SkillsFuture Festival to raise awareness and encourage participation. Together, these complementary measures help build an enabling environment that fosters inclusive engagement in lifelong learning.

ILAs are a considerable financial investment, and it is therefore critical that countries take an experimental approach to their introduction. Piloting the scheme, closely monitoring its implementation, and making iterative adjustments based on robust evaluation and evidence are key to refining the model and building a strong foundation for effective scaling up over time. Policymakers considering the introduction of an ILA scheme should first establish a clear understanding of how inputs, such as public funding, translate into outputs, such as increased participation in training, and ultimately into outcomes and impacts, such as the acquisition of new skills, higher productivity, and improved employment and wage prospects. Evaluating performance across all these stages, including through counterfactual evaluations as was done in the Netherlands, is important to ensure that ILAs deliver value for money and contribute meaningfully to national skills and employment objectives.