Academy on Social Security
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Academy on Social Security
8–19 September 2025
Introduction to the course
The Academy on Social Security is a comprehensive training package that provides the core expertise and skills for the analysis and design of social protection systems. Over two weeks, the learning programme provides a thorough grounding in the knowledge needed for the assessment of social protection instruments and design options. With over 100 participants joining the course every year and 20 elective courses to choose from, the Academy provides a unique space to craft a tailored learning journey while exchanging knowledge and experience with social protection practitioners from across the globe. Successful participants will obtain a Certificate of Achievement that is eligible for both the Diploma for Social Protection Managers and the Diploma for Social Protection Analysts.
Who attends this course?
The course is designed for officials committed to furthering the design and implementation of social protection with innovative, practical methods and techniques. Typical participants would be professionals from government ministries, social security institutions, social partners, UN agencies, non-governmental organizations, research institutes and consultancy firms.
What will I learn?
Through plenary sessions and elective courses the Academy covers topics including:
- Global trends and international best practices: global data, best practices and international social security law.
- Extension of coverage: building social protection floors and increasing the reach of contributory schemes to the informal sector.
- Financing social protection: identifying fiscal space, and undertaking actuarial planning.
- Impacts of social protection: the latest evidence and key techniques to assessing impact.
- Hot topics: Pension reform, universal health coverage, effective targeting, food security and rural poverty reduction.
- Effective management and administration: Good governance, coordination, M&E and capacity development.
- Political acceptability: Social dialogue and engaging with the political economy.
What will I be able to do?
- Assess the performance of national social protection systems keeping in mind global trends and benchmarks, country experiences, and international labour standards
- Identify priority approaches and innovations for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of social protection systems, making use of well-established analytical tools and methodologies
- Evaluate the feasibility of social protection system development from a range of perspectives, including technical correctness, political supportability and organizational implementation.
Why should I join?
- Learn from and exchange with some of the world’s leading thinkers on social protection.
- Participants join and interact with a diverse network of professionals working on social protection across the globe.
- The course uses a mix of training methods: lectures, plenary discussions, good practices, electives, case studies, group work, and individual exercises
- Take a step towards achieving the ITCILO Diploma for Social Protection, a new accreditation for the next generation of social protection practitioners.
How
The course consists of 100 total hours of learning, broken up into three phases:
• Pre-course (10 hours): Self-guided study through the online eCampus platform. Includes a pre-course assessment.
• Residential week (90 hours): 10-days of intensive training at the ITCILO in Turin, including assessment for each of four elective courses completed.
• Post-course resources: Course materials are accessible on the course eCampus after completion.
