Europe adopts the Cogent Gold Standard Competency Framework for the Chemical Industry

At the landmark Framework Agreement on Education, Training and Lifelong Learning conference in Brussels on 15 April, the European Chemical Employers Group (ECEG) and the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF) signed a ground-breaking agreement on job competences and training covering the chemical sector in all 27 European Union countries.

The agreement will see European take-up of the Cogent Gold Standard, a competency framework for job roles in the process industries which sets the skills benchmark for world class performance; the Gold Standard has been developed by Cogent with cross-industry input.

The Gold Standard will impact upon training, education and lifelong learning, and the signing of this agreement was driven by future needs for good training and skilled employees in times of demographic changes and an ageing workforce. This new agreement should also hopefully help attract young people into the Sector, and enable them to have the ongoing training and support required to ensure they are as skilled as possible for their future careers.

Reinhard Reibsch, Secretary General of EMCEF said, “This agreement is a further sign of the importance that a well qualified workforce plays for science-based production and the chemical industry as a whole."

For more information visit the Cogent website.