On 31 January 2008 Cedefops seminar, Individual learning accounts: an incentive for financing continuing vocational education and training, in Thessaloniki, presented research results on financing continuing vocational education and training (CVET) through such accounts.

The seminar was attended by 21 participants (practitioners, researchers and policy-makers) from Europe, Canada and the US. Participants acknowledged that individual learning accounts (ILAs) may play a role in achieving the EUs objectives set out in the Copenhagen process, an integral part of the Lisbon strategy.

Topics included how public policies and employment services develop ILAs and link them to career management and training, how social partners can cofinance ILAs, and what the outcomes of pilot ILA scheme evaluations show. Some clear policy lessons may be drawn by comparing the pilot projects presented at the seminar; however, several issues and challenges remain.

This publication is mainly based on the contributions from seminar participants.