The staff of an education and care service (service d'éducation et d'accueil - SEA) must fulfil a number of conditions relative to their professional qualifications.

Managerial staff

The managerial staff includes all staff members of the department whose main tasks are:

• organisational planning;
• development of educational concepts;
• management and guidance of the other members of staff;
• monitoring the provision of services in accordance with the provisions of Article 2 of the amended Grand Ducal regulation of 14 November 2013 on the approval to be granted to managers of education and childcare services;
• development of the relations between the providers in the child's social network.

At least one member of the managerial staff must meet the following cumulative conditions:

• have the necessary psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational skills that allow them to engage in the professional supervision of children, as evidenced by either:
  • a higher education diploma recorded in the register of certificates; or
  • a recognised certificate of vocational training at least of the level of a secondary or secondary technical school graduation diploma; or
    
  • a licence to practise a health profession in Luxembourg in the domains mentioned above (see also the section 'Forms / Online services' below);
• at least 3 years of professional experience in the psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational fields, including at least one and a half years in the field of non-formal education with children aged 0 to 12 years;
• having performed one of the tasks mentioned above for no less than 20 hours a week.

When the reception capacity of the service is greater than or equal to 40 children, at least one of the staff members must provide evidence of either:

• a bachelor's or master's level qualification in the psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational field that qualifies its holder to work in professional childcare; or
• a bachelor's or master's level qualification in the psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational field.

Any members of the managerial staff who resign must be replaced within 6 months.

• Any changes in the management staff must be communicated as soon as possible and within a maximum period of 6 months to the Education and Care Service of the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth. The manager is required to submit an application for a change of accreditation for the new managerial staff with supporting documents within that deadline.

Supervisory staff

All members of the supervisory staff must be at least 18 years of age.

The supervisory staff is responsible for the following tasks:

• direct educational care of children;
• the preparation of activities;
• participation in staff meetings;
• participation in consultation meetings with teachers;
• exchanges with the children's parents.

Each member of the full-time supervisory staff is entitled to 103 hours of coordination and preparation work per year. These hours are to be adjusted proportionally to the volume of the task:

• 103 hours/year for a person working 40 hours/week;
• 77.25 hours/year for a person working 30 hours/week;
• 51.5 hours/year for a person working 20 hours/week, etc.

The required qualifications of the supervisory staff in education and care establishments depend on the type of services provided: Education and care services for young children or education and care services for schooled children.

Education and care services for young children

The supervisory staff of education and care services for young children must demonstrate a professional qualification that meets the following minimum requirements:

• for at least 60 % of the time spent on childcare in any given service, the members of the supervisory staff must provide either:
  
  • at least a general or classic secondary school graduation diploma recognised by the Minister responsible for secondary education;
  • or a higher-education diploma recognised by the Minister for Education
    

in the psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational fields and which allow their holder to engage in the professional supervision of children.

• for a maximum of 30 % of the time spent on childcare in any given service, the members of the supervisory staff must provide either:
  
  
  • a licence to practise a health profession in Luxembourg;
  • a professional qualification respectively a higher education title in the areas of motor skills, language, art or music recognised by either the Minister responsible for secondary education or the Minister responsible for higher education;
  • a vocational aptitude diploma in the psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational fields, recognised by the Minister responsible for vocational training, and which qualifies its holder to work in professional childcare;
    
• for a maximum of 10 % of the time spent on childcare in any given service, the members of the supervisory staff must provide either:
  
  
  • a training certificate in social and family services (aide socio-familiale - ASF);
  • a certificate of completion of vocational training of at least 100 hours on the socio-educational supervision of children, recognised by the Minister responsible for childhood;
  • a certificate of professional competence or a diploma of vocational competence (Diplôme d’aptitude professionnelle - DAP) recognised by the Minister responsible for vocational training which attests to the completion of vocational training, recognised by the Minister responsible for childhood, of at least 100 hours on the socio-educational supervision of children.

The supervisory staff members who cannot avail themselves of the continuing training required under points b. and c. must have completed it at the latest 3 years after their appointment.

Education and care services for schoolchildren

The supervisory staff of education and care services for schooled children must demonstrate a professional qualification that meets the following minimum requirements:

• for at least 50 % of the time spent on childcare in any given service, the members of the supervisory staff must provide either:
  
  
  • at least a general or classic secondary school graduation diploma recognised by the Minister responsible for secondary education;
  • or a higher-education diploma recognised by the Minister for higher education;
    

in the psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational fields and which allow their holder to engage in the professional supervision of children.

• for a maximum of 40 % of the time spent on childcare in any given service, the members of the supervisory staff must provide either:
  
  
  • a licence to practise a health profession in Luxembourg;
  • a professional qualification respectively a higher education title in the areas of motor skills, language, art or music recognised by either the Minister responsible for secondary education or the Minister responsible for higher education;
  • a vocational aptitude diploma in the psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational fields, recognised by the Minister responsible for vocational training, and which qualifies its holder to work in professional childcare.

• for a maximum of 10 % of the time spent on childcare in any given service, the members of the supervisory staff must provide either:
  
  
  • a training certificate in social and family services (aide socio-familiale - ASF);
    
  • a certificate of completion of vocational training of at least 100 hours on the socio-educational supervision of children, recognised by the Minister responsible for childhood;
  • a certificate of professional competence or a diploma of vocational competence (Diplôme d’aptitude professionnelle - DAP) recognised by the Minister responsible for vocational training which attests to the completion of vocational training, recognised by the Minister responsible for childhood, of at least 100 hours on the socio-educational supervision of children.

The supervisory staff members who cannot avail themselves of the continuing training required under points b. and c. must have completed it at the latest 3 years after their appointment.

Trainee personnel

Trainee personnel are persons enrolled in vocational qualification training providing them with a professional qualification of secondary school or higher education final examination level, in the psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational fields.

They can provide a maximum of 20 % of the total hours of supervision. This corresponds to:

• 2/3 of the quota of 30 % of the staff in charge of the supervision of young children;
• 1/2 of the quota of 40 % of the staff in charge of the supervision of school children.

118 hours of continuing training (Basics of childcare)

Staff members with no psychosocial, pedagogical or socio-educational qualifications employed under a permanent contract must complete the 118-hour continuing training course (Bases de l'éducation et de l'accueil d'enfants on the Caritas website or on the website of the Fédération des acteurs du secteur social au Luxembourg (FEDAS)). This training must focus on the socio-educational supervision of children and be recognised by the Minister responsible for childhood.

Failing this, they have a maximum period of 3 years from being hired to complete this continuing education.

Holiday activities

For holiday activities, the education and care service establishment can hire pupils or students provided that:

• they hold a brevet A d'aide animateur (assistant youth coordinator certificate); and
• that their activities are monitored by the supervisory staff.

Cook

If the cook who is preparing lunch (whether they are employed by the establishment or an external service provider) serves more than 60 meals per day, they must have a vocational aptitude diploma for cooks (diplôme d'aptitude professionnelle - DAP) or an equivalent qualification.

Regardless of the number of meals, cooks must certify that they have been trained in cooking for children. Should the not be the case, they must complete this course within a year.

Academic recognition of foreign higher education qualifications and degrees

The Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) is responsible for registering foreign "bachelor" or "master" degrees in the register of certificates.

Recognition of foreign qualifications

The recognition of a foreign certificate or diploma is carried out by the Department for the Recognition of Diplomas (Service de la reconnaissance des diplômes) at the Ministry of Education, Children and Youth (MENEJ).

Licence to practise

The licence to practise a socio-educational profession (foreign qualified educator and care assistant) is also obtained from the Department for the Recognition of Diplomas.

The licence to practise the profession of Luxembourg care assistant is obtained from the Department of Vocational Training.

The licence to practise a health profession can be obtained from the Ministry of Health (see the section 'Forms / Online services').

Commission for the classification of a professional qualifications

A commission is set up to assist the Minister responsible for childhood.

Its mission is as follows:

• provide advice to the Minister, at the request of the applicant, with a view to determining the level of his or her professional qualification in accordance with the qualifications laid down for managerial and supervisory staff.

Requests can be addressed to the Minister of Education, Children and Youth by email at the address commission-classification@men.lu.

This is a classification of qualifications in relation to the qualification provisions for management and supervisory staff set out in the Grand Ducal regulation on SEA and not a recognition of diplomas, a licence to practise or an entry in the register of certificates.

The application for recognition and the application for a licence to practise must be made before the application for classification.

Personnel files

During operation, the manager must keep an up-to-date personnel file for each staff member, including:

• the employment contract or a copy of the decision regarding the person's appointment;
• documents attesting their professional qualification and vocational training;
• a medical certificate; and
• a recent extract from the criminal record (record No. 3, record No. 5 and/or foreign criminal record).

A recent criminal record is one that is less than 2 months old from the date of its establishment.

Given the limited duration of validity of the criminal record, the employer must indicate in the staff member's file that he has checked the good repute of the persons concerned and that on presentation of the criminal record, he was able to observe that the person in question fulfils the conditions of good repute.

Each member of staff who has been charged with or convicted for an offence or offences committed against a minor or involving a minor is required to inform their employer of this immediately.

Forms / Online services