Theory and practice of European co-operative education and training for the support of energy transition

Abstract

Background: European visions such as the European Commission's Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan and the SET Plan Roadmap Education and Training encourages higher education institutions (HEI) and business to establish adequate cooperative education and training approaches in the face of the challenges posed by the energy transition necessary to achieve European Union's climate goals. The development of integrated cooperative education, training and learning systems is a fundamental strategy to foster cooperation between academic institutions and business. Methods: Available sources about the theoretical and practical knowledge of cooperative education and training are limited. To identify available information and create new information where there is no this research was carried out by means of a literature study and a database search on existing cooperative education formats. This was supplemented by an analysis of seven actual case study reports regarding examples drawn from the BioEnergyTrain (BET) project commissioned under the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme. Results: Cooperation for educational purposes between higher education institutions (HEI) and business exists on the curricular, course and internship level.Considering the total number of studies on a curricular level in Europe, only very few cooperative education programmes exist. On the curricular level, most of the appropriate formats are dual studies with Bachelors' programmes, fewer are dual studies with Master's programmes. Cooperation formats on the course level do not follow institutionalised rules and are case-specifically applied. The studies presented in this journal dealing with practical examples emphasise the high potential for improving student's skills and insight into business that such cooperative formats offer to universities and business partners.Co-operation on an internship level has a long tradition of exposing students to the business environment they will later work in. Internships however do not provide high-intensity cooperation between business and HEIs. Therefore, it is outside the focus of this paper's attention. Results of statistical analysis reveal a total number of 19,822 related dual study programmes in the year 2018 alone in Germany whereas, for cooperative curricula on a master's level, just 73 can be tracked in whole Europe. Results of the case study reports are further discussed in Additional files 1,

A European-wide exploratory study to analyse the relationship between training and energy efficiency in the construction sector

“…As to RQ2 (level of provision of energy efficiency training in the Construction sector), the study reveals a mixed landscape with a clear lack of understanding of market demand based on a lifecycle and supply chain segment. This corroborates findings from related studies (Backlund et al 2012 ; Maier et al 2019 ), that report: (a) a wide variety in the quality of training provision, (b) fall in apprenticeship completions due to challenging economic conditions, (c) reliance on a more flexible self-employed workforce due to uncertainty in the market, (d) Low training and development activity driven by the high number of self-employed tradesmen who often face an ‘earn or learn’ dilemma, (e) the transient nature of the workforce and the evolving training demand of the industry deterring employers from investing in staff training, (f) lack of career planning and the tendency to adopt a supplier as opposed to a demand driven model, (g) lack of strategic approach to Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and Continuing Craft Development across the industry.…”

“…It is worth noting the Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan Roadmap on Education and Training, which has set the groundwork for the implementation of skilled workers towards innovations in the field of energy technologies (Maier et al 2019 ). Furthermore, the BUILD UP Skills initiative, which specifically investigated the education and professional development of craftsmen and other on-site construction workers (BUILD UP 2020 ) from 28 Member States in Europe offers a significant blueprint for future actions.…”

“…The paper argues that the overall potential for energy efficiency would be higher if successful training initiatives and supporting policy instruments are put in place. In fact, staff training initiatives tend to be relatively low-cost activities and have been demonstrated to have large positive effects on the promotion of energy efficiency in industry (Backlund et al 2012 ; Maier et al 2019 ). As such, educational (both initial university curriculums and vocational education and training) and informative programs are ideal pathways to maximize demand for sustainable energy skills in the Construction sector.…”

Understanding Sustainable Energy in the Context of Smart Cities: A PRISMA Review

“…Smart cities, during the last decade and a half, have offered some invaluable directions (at least at the theoretical level) for addressing this problem [96]. The smart city energy solutions focus on establishing: (a) energy efficiency; (b) energy sustainability, including utilization of renewable energy resources; and (c) energy and urban planning, including the utilization of smart grids, smart homes/buildings, smart urban and energy planning, electric vehicles, and so on [97][98][99][100][101].…”

The Quintuple Helix Model: Cooperation system for a sustainable electric power industry in Mexico

“…For its part, the development of human capital is indispensable for the success of the energy transition. In coordination with the government, strategic planning and collaboration between educational institutions and renewable energy industries are necessary for the development of integrated cooperative education, training, and learning systems to reduce mismatches between the demand and supply of skills (Lucas et al, 2018;Maier et al, 2019;IRENA, 2020). Having conveyed the previous ideas, the following hypotheses are explained:…”