Shortage of technical staff? These schools are training the green chemists of the future

By 2050, chemical companies in the Netherlands should be fully climate neutral and circular. That means they will no longer make plastics, fertilizers, cosmetics and other products from fossil raw materials such as oil and gas, but from biobased raw materials, recycled plastics and carbon from captured CO2 (CCU). That's called green chemistry. The only question is: who is going to do all that? Where are these green chemical companies going to get their workforce from?

Together with companies

The South Limburg VISTA college and the Brabant knowledge center ROOTZ are already working on that question. Last year, VISTA College received a European grant of nearly one million euros from the Just Transition Fund (JTF) to train 540 students, lateral entrants and employed chemists for green chemistry. The school is contributing a similar amount. In total, students can take nine different courses in that direction. Not only for the plastics industry, but also for biotech, biomedical or a company like Mosa Meat, which makes cultured meat. VISTA trains process, bio and cleanroom operators, lab technicians and other technicians, among others.

The school is collaborating in the project with the companies at Chemelot chemical complex, participating as Chemelot Innovation and Learning Labs, CHILL for short. "We were already collaborating with the companies at Chemelot, but now we are more focused on green chemistry," said project leader Marc van Oosterhout of VISTA.