Country report

1. STEM education

The low supply of STEM specialists poses challenges for Belgium’s productivity. The share of students enrolled in STEM subjects at tertiary level was 18.7% in 2023, one of the lowest in the EU (average 26.9%). Interest is growing especially in engineering and information and communication technology (ICT) programmes, resulting in a 28% increase in the number of students in STEM since 2015 (+9.2% in the total student population). In ICT, the number of students has doubled (from 12 000 to 24 000) since 2015, but at doctoral level they represent only 0.6% of all students (116), which is the lowest in the EU (3.8%) and far from the proposed EU target of 5%. In medium-level VET, fewer than 3 in 10 students enrolled were in STEM fields (27.7%), compared to an EU average of 36.3% in 2023. The low supply of STEM graduates at all qualification levels, but especially those with high skills, hampers productivity growth. Two-thirds of job openings in Belgium are expected to require high-level qualifications (CEDEFOP, 2025), including occupations related to the green transition (Barslund et al., 2024). Increasing the share of tertiary qualified STEM specialists by 10% at a typical manufacturing firm would yield a 20% gain in productivity (Bijnens & Dhyne, 2021). Belgium currently lacks a mechanism to forecast STEM skills. Flanders is developing an integrated skills intelligence framework for the region, to be implemented in 2026 (OECD, 2024b).

Women are underrepresented in STEM at tertiary level, but more and more are enrolling in ICT programmes. In initial medium-level VET in STEM fields, almost 1 in 4 students is female (23.2%), which is close to the proposed EU target of at least 25% (EU: 15.4% in 2023). At tertiary level, only 26.8% of STEM students are women compared to 32.2% in the EU (2023). In ICT, women make up only 14.9% of enrolled STEM students (EU: 20.3%) and female doctoral students represent 22.4% of all ICT PhD enrolments (EU: 24.3%). In the French Community, the number of women enrolled in ICT programmes has more than tripled, and their proportion doubled (from 6.9% to 13.5%) between 2014/15 and 2022/23 (ARES, 2021). In Flanders, the ratio of female students in ICT bachelor and master programmes rose from 8.2% to 15.8% over the same period (Dataloep, 2025).

Girls’ STEM study choices are linked to mathematics self-efficacy and motivational factors. Girls show less self-efficacy and confidence than boys, which is negatively correlated with mathematics performance (Dupont et al., 2024; European Commission, 2021). Women who perceive a good fit between their interest and their study environment are more likely than men to enrol in STEM tertiary studies (Schelfhout et al., 2021). Another important factor is their (anticipated) sense of belonging in professional fields (Veldman et al., 2021). Furthermore, girls with strong maths and science skills often choose studies that fall outside of the STEM classification but require STEM skills. In the French Community, a quarter of top-performing girls in science or maths expect to work in healthcare, with only 16% in science or engineering (compared to 30% of top-performing boys (OECD, 2023b)). Flanders’ STEM academies have so far had some positive impact on girls’ intentions to pursue STEM studies and careers (Blondeel & Coussement, 2023).

Interventions in secondary education are crucial to sustain interest in STEM. Research suggests that an integrated STEM curriculum in secondary education, such as the STEM@school and iSTEM learning modules in Flanders, has a positive influence on student engagement in STEM and could potentially encourage them to pursue higher education in STEM (Meester et al., 2020; Polanco-Jimenez & De Witte, 2025). In the French Community, a study of 12th-grade students (final year of secondary school) found that teacher expectations were linked to students’ aspirations to study math-intensive subjects for both sexes by influencing their perception of their abilities, and in schools with a higher concentration of well-performing students this effect was stronger (Jaegers et al., 2023). A survey of 6 240 students aged 12-25 in Wallonia revealed that perceptions of study difficulty and attitudes towards scientific and technical professions also play a role in choosing a STEM career (Bouchat et al., 2020).

Flanders is implementing a comprehensive STEM action plan. The STEM Agenda 2030 follows the 2012-2020 STEM Action Plan and focuses on both general STEM literacy and increasing the number of STEM specialists (Departement Werk en Sociale Economie, 2021). For education, progress is monitored along five core indicators and published in the annual STEM Monitor report. By 2024, improvements had been made in participation in dual and adult learning in STEM, but not in improving higher education completion rates in STEM (Departement Onderwijs en Vorming, 2025). The share of students studying STEM subjects in secondary education also remains low (36.4%; Flanders target: 40.25%), especially for girls in vocational education (10.40%; Flanders target: 20%) (Departement Onderwijs en Vorming, 2025).

The French Community is committed to making science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM) careers more attractive. The ongoing compulsory education reform (Pact for Excellence in Education) embraces a multidisciplinary STEAM approach. A ministerial initiative ‘La rentrée des sciences’ was launched in October 2022 to promote STEAM education in schools. The new French Community government has reaffirmed its commitment for 2024-29 to work closely with community and regional governments to promote entrepreneurship and STEAM, especially among women.

2. Early childhood education and care

Belgium maintains high levels of early childhood education and care (ECEC) participation, but families with children at risk use childcare less often. Close to all children (98%) attend ECEC between the ages of three and five (start of mandatory schooling), surpassing the EU level target of 96%. Among children under three, those who are not at risk of poverty or social exclusion are three times more likely to participate in formal childcare (59.3%) than those who are at risk (20.1%). This was the second largest gap in the EU in 2024. Research on the uptake of formal childcare in Belgium suggests that employment opportunities play a greater role than the availability of local childcare opportunities or other family arrangements (Biegel & Maes, 2024).

The new Flemish government aims to invest in childcare and recruit additional staff. In April 2025, it announced resources for 10 000 extra places in childcare, involving an investment of EUR 200 million under the new Childcare Plan 2025-2029 (Vlaamse Regering, 2025a). Based on objective criteria, regions with low coverage will be prioritised next to cities such as Brussels, Antwerp and Ghent, but it is not clear yet if this will be sufficient to meet the demand. In 2025, the Constitutional Court overturned the 2024 reform of priority rules to access income-based subsidised childcare, which favoured the admission of children whose parents work 4/5 of the time. It ruled that the measure put disadvantaged families, part-time workers and single parents at an unfair disadvantage. Furthermore, the staff-to-children ratio will be reduced to 1 to 5 (in groups with only children under one year), 1 to 8 (in groups with children over one year) and 1 to 7 (in mixed groups) (European Commission/ EACEA, 2025). However, this is still rather high compared to other EU systems and may contribute to the low attractiveness of the profession (Teppers & Van Regenmortel, 2023). To attract lateral entrants, amongst other measures, paid training courses have been developed for interested individuals and students in dual learning, who can complete their training while working at childcare centres.

French-speaking Belgium continues to increase the availability of childcare and aims to combat staff shortages. In 2025, the Walloon government announced the creation of an additional 106 places in centre-based childcare facilities, in response to the growing shortage of places. The availability of childcare facilities is currently the lowest in Hainaut (43.8%) and the Brussels Region (40.5%). The Office of Birth and Childhood published an analysis of shortages in the childcare sector in expectation of an action plan to address the issue. The report identified a significant mismatch between the experience of jobseekers and employers’ expectations, limiting opportunities for beginners. 29.4% of workers in the childcare sector are over 56 years old, indicating an urgent need to attract and train new professionals (Gerard et al., 2025).

3. School education and basic skills

Early school leaving and school absenteeism are a growing concern. While below the EU average (EU: 9.3%), the share of early leavers from education and training (aged between 18 and 24) has recorded an increase since 2021, reaching 7% in 2024. The highest rates were observed in Wallonia (8.1%) and the Brussels Region (9.8%), close to pandemic era levels. In the longer term, the differences between young people born in Belgium and those born in another country have narrowed significantly (from 9.2 pps to 1.8 pps between 2015 and 2024). School absenteeism has increased, especially in the Brussels Region: the share of students with more than 30 half-days of unexcused absences in full-time mainstream secondary education was 8.3% in Dutch-speaking schools in 2023/24 (vs 4.5% in 2014/15). The French Community adopted a decree on combating dropout and absenteeism in 2024. Implementation has been postponed by one year: 2026 in pre-primary and primary education and 2027 in secondary education. The Flemish government has also announced a more coordinated approach to tackling early school leaving (Vlaams Parlement, 2024).

Belgium is falling behind in mathematics and science. The 2023 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) points to the deterioration of basic skills among 4th graders. Pupils in the French Community scored the second lowest among the participating EU countries in mathematics and the lowest in science. The share of underachievers was also among the highest in mathematics at 42% and in science at 41%. The Flemish Community fared better, but its results have declined the most among participating countries since 2015. The share of underachieving pupils in mathematics has doubled (27%). In both Communities, the share of top performers in science is very small (2%) compared to the EU average (6.6%). The gender gap in both science and mathematics is significant and shows a worsening trend in Flanders. New research suggests that remedial measures such as summer schools have been effective in reducing the learning deficit among disadvantaged students in Flanders and that the results of top performers in mathematics continued to fall but had caught up again with pre-pandemic levels by 2024 (Gambi & De Witte, 2024, 2025).

Inequalities in educational outcomes remain significant over time. The share of 15-year-olds from both disadvantaged and advantaged backgrounds who perform well in at least one OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) domain (reading, mathematics, science) has dropped since 2015 (from 22.7% to 16.6% for disadvantaged students, and from 71.3% to 66.3% for advantaged students), but remains slightly above the EU average (16.3%). As a result, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students remains fairly large (49.6 pps in 2022) and above the EU average (42.7 pps), both individually in the Communities (BEnl: 46.3 pps, BEfr: 52.6 pps) and on average (BE 2015: 48.5 pps). Inequalities in basic skills are correlated with pupils’ socio-economic and migration characteristics (European Commission, 2024a) but are also linked with home educational activities as well as quality ECEC. In TIMSS 2023, pupils who engaged in home and in pre-school learning activities that stimulate language and numeracy scored higher in both maths and science (Verhelst et al., 2024).

Flemish pupils perform above average in digital skills. Eighth graders in the Flemish Community scored significantly higher than their peers in other EU countries in the 2023 International Computer and Information Literacy Study. While the share of underachieving pupils (36%) is below the EU average (43%), it is still far above the 15% target. The digitalisation of education in Flanders, supported by Digisprong, has been successful: compared to 2018, infrastructure has improved, the number of schools with ICT plans has increased and 95% now have an ICT coordinator (MICTIVO-4, 2024). A new Technical Support Instrument project will help Flanders and the Netherlands to improve the relevance and effectiveness of teachers’ continuous professional development. In 2025, the government approved DigiPlan, the successor to Digisprong. It represents a policy shift by promoting a more balanced use of digital and traditional teaching tools (e.g. handwriting) and investing in physical infrastructure and shared devices. The French Community has invested EUR 170 million in digitalisation through the Digital School programme (part of the Digital Wallonia Plan) and offers a tool in cooperation with the Pix Platform for evaluating digital competences.

The Communities aim to improve quality and reduce inequalities by strengthening school accountability. Education in Belgium is characterised by high levels of school autonomy; at the same time recent reforms aim to boost accountability. First, (low stake) standardised testing is being introduced. The Flemish Community started testing students in Dutch and mathematics in 2024 (fourth and eighth grade), and the French Community plans to test the basic skills (mathematics, reading and writing) of third graders as of 2026 for early diagnosis. The German-speaking Community is also developing a new system to monitor students’ basic competences as part of its Vision 2040 strategy (OECD, 2023a, 2024a). The Communities are also moving towards more prescriptive curricular guidance. The French Community has set up a Monitoring Committee to assess implementation of the core curriculum rolled out under the Pact for Excellence at school level. As of September 2025, Flanders is advancing a curricular reform in primary education with a focus on Dutch and mathematics (50% of teaching time) as well as STEM, personal development and social skills. The new ‘knowledge-rich’ curriculum is structured around minimum goals, ensuring that pupils build knowledge systematically, enabling them to make connections and develop deeper understanding.

4. Vocational education and training

Belgium exceeds the EU average in terms of medium-level students enrolled in VET programmes, but there is scope to increase work-based learning. In 2023, 57.3% of pupils in medium-level education attended a programme with a vocational direction, around 5 pps higher than the EU average (52.4%). However, fewer than half of Belgian VET graduates experienced work-based learning during their training programme (48.8% in 2024). This is well below the EU-level target of 60% for work-based learning by 2025, and below the latest EU average of 65.2%.

To improve the labour market relevance of VET, Flanders seeks to expand work-based learning. It aims to facilitate dual learning in VET by making conditions more flexible and continuing to promote dual learning as a high-value learning pathway. However, uptake remains modest, with only 6.6% of students participating in the relevant tracks (Verhaest & De Witte, 2025). The low attractiveness of VET has been identified as a risk factor specifically for early school dropout, including in labour-market oriented STEM programmes (IDEA Consult, 2025). Flanders is taking steps to modernise and update the secondary education system, which includes the VET system and some dual learning programmes (Vlaamse Regering, 2025b).

Efforts to strengthen work-based learning have also been announced by the Walloon Region and the French Community. Their respective government declarations state intentions to collaborate on developing dual learning and apprenticeships across educational levels, including secondary, adult and tertiary education. As part of the Pact for Excellence in Education, the French Community reformed the governance of the VET offer in upper secondary education in 2024. Changes include the better integration of educational and socio-economic players in VET decision-making. The planned budget rationalisation (at 97% of the current level) and the discontinuation of 1-year post-secondary professional training programmes (so-called 7^th year) for adults and secondary education certificate holders in favour of adult education provoked strong reactions among stakeholders.

5. Tertiary education

Tertiary educational attainment remains high. In 2024, about half (50.7%) of young people aged 25-34 held a tertiary education certificate, above the EU target of 45%. The highest share of tertiary educated people reside in Walloon Brabant (64.4%), and the lowest in Hainaut (37.8%). The employment rate of recent graduates from tertiary education is consistently high (87.8% in 2024, EU: 86.7%), but there is a lack of comparable and reliable data on the match between graduate profiles and labour market needs. According to Statistics Belgium, around one-fifth of tertiary educated young people aged 15-34 feel overqualified for their job, and four in ten do not work in their field of education (Statbel, 2025). The follow-up to the 2017 Council Recommendation on tracking graduates lacks policy focus in both Communities, which are active members of the European Network of Graduate Tracking. Efforts are underway to broaden the coverage (BE-fr) and reform existing tracking measures (BE-nl) through the use of administrative data.

Students in Belgium take longer to complete their studies due to orientation difficulties. In 2023, only 33% (BEnl) and 23% (BEfr) of new bachelor students completed their studies within the theoretical timeframe of their programme, well below the EU average (EU-25: 43%) (OECD, 2025). In the Flemish Community, 70% of students eventually succeed within six years (EU-25: 67%), whereas in the French Community only 51% graduate, and most students (21%) drop out after the first year (OECD, 2025). This can be attributed among others to the absence of ex ante admission mechanisms in Belgian higher education institutions, leading to a mismatch between students and majors and prolonging study time (Declercq & Verboven, 2018). In the French Community, the ‘Landscape decree’ (décret paysage) introduced a credit accumulation system to increase study efficiency (see European Commission 2024). However, the first study to examine its effects warns of potential risks of students dropping out at a later stage, especially among disadvantaged students (Dehon & Lebouteiller, 2025). The ADA orientation tool helps young people match their interests with existing jobs and post-secondary education programmes. Similarly, in Flanders, initiatives such as Columbus have been developed to improve the match between study programmes and students.

Flanders has completed the implementation of the Higher Education Advancement Fund. All higher education institutions have benefited from funding under the Belgian recovery and resilience plan, amounting to EUR 54 million, either individually or in collaboration. At the same time, a reformed funding model to account for the increasing number of students has not yet been developed. The new government intends to limit funding for students from non-EU countries (maximum 2% per institution), which could make it more difficult to attract foreign talent.

6. Adult skills and learning

Despite measures taken, Belgium still has a long way to go to reach its national 2030 target for adult participation in training. According to the 2022 Adult Education Survey, adult participation in education and training was 34.9% in Belgium, a long way from the national 2030 target (60.9%). Belgium also performs below the EU average of 39.5% and, unlike in the EU overall, participation has dropped compared to 2016 (last measured period). However, EU Labour Force Survey data indicate that adult participation in education and training increased between 2022 and 2024.

In 2023, Flanders noted better results than the EU average in adult basic skills. 13.3% of adults performed poorly across all domains (literacy, numeracy and adaptive problem-solving), which is significantly lower than the EU average of 19.9%. While Belgium has recorded an increase in low-achieving 15-year-olds (PISA), the performance of adults in basic skills has remained largely stable since 2013. However, the inequality in adults’ literacy skills is widening, with the gap growing between high- and low-performing adults.

The different governments are taking measures to boost adult learning and skills in line with the objectives of the Union of Skills, although some cutbacks have also been announced. In 2023, the French Community published a stocktaking of the adult learning sector. This analysis has fed into a newly outlined reform of the formal adult education system, which includes a name change from ‘Enseignement de Promotion Sociale’ to ‘Enseignement pour Adultes’ (Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, 2025). The ‘Contract 2035’ aims to make adult education more accessible and flexible, and notably to better align learning offers with labour market needs. Given the low perceived learning needs and large participation gaps, Flanders carried out studies to analyse the drivers of adults’ (perceived) learning needs (Vissers & van Cauwenberghe, 2024). At the same time, the new Flemish government introduced cuts in its budget for lifelong learning (Vlaamse Regering, 2025c). The new Belgian federal government also intends to scrap the Federal Learning Account (at regional level, an individual learning account is in place in Flanders).