ABSTRACT
In the Northern Region, industrial employment is concentrated in a small number of companies involved in the manufacture of metal goods and machine tools, followed by the food, chemical, oil, textiles and coal industries. The industrial structures which, since the beginning of the eighteenth century, have benefitted from technological progress made these regions the focal point of an exceptional development phase. Whatever the nature, consequences and range of the modifications involved in different European regions, it has been demonstrated on a number of occasions that existing local structures generally adapt much better to the changes than is usually imagined. Although the importance and the precocious character of the technical and professional schools in Charleroi has been emphasised, the region's glass industry belonged to the old industrial tradition, yet no preparatory schools exist for this trade. Recent developments in labour relations would tend to favour the development of such a consensus.
