Example of a skills development plan: everything you need to know to build your own

By Jennifer Montérémal

Published: 9 November 2024

Increasing knowledge and skills is essential to the development of employees and the company.

Among other things, it helps to strengthen employee commitment and loyalty, while encouraging internal promotions.

In order to determine the most appropriate training initiatives and to monitor them, there is an essential tool: the skills development plan. We tell you more, with a few examples to back it up 👇.

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Definition of the skills development plan

Formerly known as the training plan, the skills development plan is a scheme designed to ensure that employees acquire and update the knowledge essential to their professional development 🧑‍💼.

Is the skills development plan compulsory for companies?

In practice, there is no obligation for a company to introduce a skills development plan. It is up to the employer to decide. The decision to introduce the plan is generally taken by the staff representatives, after consultation with all the employees.

In addition, it should be noted that if the company has set up a skills development plan, then the employee is - except in special cases - required to opt out of the various training initiatives.

💡 Good to know: through their training account, employees can also take the initiative in upgrading their skills.

Benefits for employees

From the employee's point of view, the skills development plan contributes, among other things, to :

job security
personal fulfilment at work
boosting self-esteem;
encouraging internal promotion.

In addition, it's worth noting that at a time when many professions are changing in tandem with the rise of digital technology, the need for training is all the greater 💪.

The benefits for employers

At first glance, some companies may take a dim view of the skills development plan. Mainly for financial reasons and encroachment on working time.

But on closer examination, there are many advantages to training and developing your employees . These include

Substantial savings through internal recruitment;
Increased employee commitment;
increased employee loyalty
increased productivity through skills development;
attracting the younger generation to the recruitment market.

Focus on training initiatives

The training initiatives that make up the skills development plan are divided into two categories:

Compulsory or necessary training: these training modules take place during working hours and involve continued remuneration. They are compulsory as a result of the application of an international agreement or legal and regulatory provisions relating to the performance of a given function or activity.

Non-compulsory training: these educational modules may take place during or outside working hours. Continued remuneration depends on this criterion.

How is the skills development plan financed?

The first thing you need to know is that the financing of the skills development plan is entirely the responsibility of the company. In other words, it is the employer who finances :

the training modules
catering costs
any travel expenses
any accommodation costs;
continued pay for employees on training.

However, you should be aware that you may be eligible for external assistance to help you cover all these training costs. Organisations such as the European Social Fund (ESF), regional councils or skills operators (OPCO) can contribute to this funding 👍.

💡 Goodto know: all companies with at least one employee are required to contribute to vocational training. Taxes are levied each year, the amount of which is based on the payroll according to the number of employees in the company. Companies with more than 50 employees are not eligible for financial assistance from an OPCO.

How do you draw up a skills development plan? The 6 stages

Drawing up a skills development plan cannot be improvised overnight. Several distinct stages must be carefully followed.

Stage 1: Defining needs

Here, we distinguish between two types of training needs: those emanating from the employer, and those coming from the employees.

A well-constructed skills development plan will therefore include :

training that the employer deems necessary for the company's strategy and development (learning to use new software, bringing staff up to new safety standards, etc.);

training actions that employees deem necessary for the performance of their tasks and their development within the company (development of customer relations, introduction to time-saving software, etc.).

Stage 2: Choosing training initiatives

Having identified the training needs to be undertaken, it's time to define them precisely.

To do this, the company will look at the most appropriate organisations and modules . As the majority of training courses are carried out during working hours, with continued remuneration, the employer will seek to optimise them by various means.

Stage 3: Budgeting

The employer is responsible for the entire cost of the training courses included in the skills development plan. Budgeting is therefore particularly important.

The company must define the most appropriate budget, taking into account the needs expressed by employees and the imperatives set by the management team. With this in mind, a prioritisation exercise is necessary.

Stage 4: Prioritisation

Managing to satisfy all the stakeholders when it comes to training is a delicate task. An employee on training is an employee who cannot carry out his usual duties during a given period. What's more, companies do not have an unlimited financial reserve.

Prioritisation must therefore be carried out, taking into account the time spent, the benefits of each training course and the budget allocated.

Stage 5: Implementation

Once the skills development plan has been finalised and validated, the employer can notify its employees.

Implementing the training timetable helps to anticipate the needs to be covered and gives employees a more or less long-term view.

It should be noted that, contrary to what you might think, the skills development plan is not set in stone. In other words, it can be readjusted - to a certain extent - according to the changing needs of the employer and employees.

Stage 6: Review

Implementing a skills development plan is a good thing. Being able to assess its effectiveness and capitalise on it is even better!

Here, the company's objective should be to define as precisely as possible the impact of all the training activities carried out during the year:

Has the level of employee skills, satisfaction and commitment increased?
Has there been a positive impact on performance and productivity?
Were any internal recruitments made?

💡Good to know: for companies with more than 50 employees, the draft skills development plan must be presented to the company's social and economic committee (CSE). Minutes will be drawn up to record the decisions taken during the presentation meeting.

2 examples of skills development plans

There is no single model to follow when drawing up a skills development plan. There are many templates available to download to help you get an idea of the key headings to include.

Here are a few examples of skills development plans to inspire you 👉.

The Uniformation template

This example of a skills development plan produced using Excel is designed to be clean, easy to read and simple. It gives a complete and immediate overview of the type of training, its duration and its cost.

It is in this budgetary aspect that this example of a skills development plan is particularly interesting. It allows you to calculate the proportion of salary paid during the training period, as well as the various costs associated with travel and accommodation.

However, there are no sections focusing on training and its objectives. This example of a skills development plan would benefit from more detail.

The SmartInsights model

Complex at first glance, this example of a skills development plan has the distinctive feature of correlating the employee's training objectives with the company's development objectives. A choice that aligns individual and organisational development for a more relevant overall view.

While it includes the main headings that make up a skills development plan (duration of training, objectives to be achieved, monitoring of progress, comments from the manager, etc.), the absence of a budgetary dimension and a lack of legibility are regrettable.

In short, this example of a skills development plan appears to be designed primarily for in-depth individual monitoring.

What tools can help you?

A skills development plan can be designed using basic tools. A simple spreadsheet can do the job if you have correctly defined each heading to be included.

The most important headings include

type of training ;
course dates
total training time;
the training organisation;
the cost of the course;
the training objectives ;
level of progress ;
skills developed;
the manager's comments and observations.

However, more and more companies are opting for dedicated software, whose specific functions make it much easier to create, update and monitor the various skills development plans. Not to mention the fact that they often provide advanced analyses and reports, enabling a more accurate assessment of the effectiveness of these plans.

👉 Skeely, for example, specialises in interview management and GPEC. Thanks to its skills mapping tool, you have a global repository of your company's knowledge and know-how, so you can better define your needs in terms of skills upgrading. Planning the training actions to be implemented is then as simple as a few clicks, since all the data is recorded in the platform.