Skills for the Petrochemicals Industry of Tomorrow: Transforming in the Green & Digital Age 

Petrochemicals Europe has joined ChemSkills Project, a new European-funded initiative addressing the digital and green transition in the chemical industry. 

The goal of ChemSkills is simple: to identify the skills needed for this challenging transformation and ensure education aligns with industry requirements. This means focusing on climate-friendly and circularity practices, digitalisation advancements, and sustainability goals outlined in the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.  

But we’re not stopping at identification. ChemSkills is about making sure that education and industry are on the same page, creating a concrete plan to bridge the gap and getting the right support from the institutions.  

Over the next four years, together with Federchimica, FECCIA, and Kemianteollisuus, we’ll be working hard to ensure that education and on-site training programmes align with the ever-evolving skills landscape of the petrochemicals industry. We will collect extensive data from industry professionals and formulate strategic recommendations for the European Commission and Member States, focusing on skillsets that require short, mid, and long-term incentives.   

These recommendations aim to cover all professional levels within petrochemical operations and identify areas for upskilling, re-skilling, or un-skilling to meet the industry’s committed green and digital objectives.  

Would you like to help us identify and close the petrochemical industry skills gaps? Reach out to Angelina Sterlina, Petrochemicals Europe Communications Manager (ast@cefic.be), and Frédéric Aertsens, Sector Group Manager Sustainable Fuels (fae@cefic.be) for more information on the project.