Training in Life Sciences: Belgium, the place to be

The aptaskil competence center aims to meet the growing need for talent in the chemical and life sciences sector, and particularly in the biotech/biopharma industry. The center trains up to 4,300 people a year (jobseekers, workers and students) and offers no fewer than 130 apprenticeship modules in production trades, all taught by instructors from the industry! The results are impressive, with a professional integration rate of over 85%. This is good news, given that the number of jobs in the biotech and biopharma sector in Wallonia and Brussels has risen by almost 40% in 10 years, with nearly 5,000 additional jobs.

The chemical and life sciences sector is one of the most attractive in terms of employment, with almost 33,000 jobs in Wallonia and Brussels by 2022. Growth is set to continue in the years ahead. Problem: the gap is widening between what the industry has to offer and the talents available. To meet this growing demand, aptaskil has invested 8 million euros to expand its facilities in Seneffe (Wallonia, Belgium). The competence center now boasts an additional 1,400 m² of infrastructure, including clean rooms and laboratories. In total, 3,750m² are dedicated to industrial training in the field of Chemistry and Life Sciences. This investment has also enabled the development of innovative, digital teaching approaches, which will now be used to train up to 6,000 people a year! The center will also open a new branch in Liège's LégiaPark in 2024.

Isabelle Legentil, Managing Director of aptaskil: "With the extension of its infrastructures in Seneffe and soon in Liège, the modularization of some of its training programs and the arrival of digitalization in both content and pedagogical form, aptaskil has resized its capacities to better meet the growing needs of the Walloon chemical and life sciences industry. The visit of His Majesty the King honors us and clearly highlights the importance of training for access to production jobs in the sector."

Funding for these 2 initiatives amounts to almost 11 million euros. The chemical and life sciences sector is contributing 4.9 million euros, thanks to a contribution from the sectoral training funds brought together within Co-Valent. The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in partnership with Le Forem, has invested 980,000 euros. The European Union and Wallonia are contributing 4.8 million euros as part of the European Recovery and Resilience Plan and the Wallonia Recovery Plan.