The EU strategies on Employment and Lifelong Learning are a response to globalisation and technological progress. The EU strategies are centred around four themes, aiming at more and better jobs on the European internal labour market. 

The four themes are:
I.    Investing in human capital
Why: The difference is made by the way people perform.

II.   Employability
Why: Lifelong job security is over. The aim is to create work security and equip people with knowledge, skills and competencies that enable them to adapt to changes and work in a changing environment.

III.  Participation in education and training for Lifelong Learning
Why: To make people employable and to keep people employable, they need to participate in education and training throughout their career.

IV.  Demand-driven education and training
Why: Excellent vocational education and training programmes are based on the labour market’s demand for skills and competencies. 

VAPRO works with European partners to strengthen vocational education and training for the chemical and processing industry.

In the projects ECTS/EQF for chemical workers, competency profiles were developed for the jobs of operator/supervisor/process engineer in automated plants. Representatives from industry and education from 9 European countries took part in these projects. See www.ects-chemie.de and www.eqf-chemie.de.