Educate VET educators and students on the fundamentals of photovoltaic energy through innovative pedagogical methods that stimulate interests and motivations in the PV, solar thermal, and photovoltaic thermal sectors.
Project description
Global data on education and training prove that one of the barriers to achieving the expected renewable energy productions are the shortage of qualified staff (Hugo L. et al., 2018), and the biggest driver of this skills shortage in the Energy industry is insufficient education and training. According to EurObserv’ER. The number of jobs opportunities in renewable energy reached over 1.5 million in 2018 (EurObserv’ER, 2019), and 500,000 more jobs in renewable energy were made in 2020 from 2019, with a third of them being in solar energy (World Economic Forum, 2019), leading to the conclusion that schools need to prepare the next generation of solar experts.
The project PV EXPERTS aims to adapt vocational education training to labour market needs by developing a program that offers a balanced mix of vocational skills and creates work-based learning opportunities well aligned to all economic cycles, evolving jobs, working methods, and key competencies.
Objectives
- To promote environmental sustainability and green education among VET schools by raising awareness about environmental issues and climate change and how renewable energies can help to tackle these challenges.
- To facilitate inclusion of migrants and refugees in VET education and training by engaging in the project’s activities, as they often face difficulties in adjusting to a new learning environment.
- To tackle the issue of continuous market demands of skilled manpower in the solar sector by providing innovative educational methods to VET educators for introducing PV, PVT and ST fundamentals to their students.
- To increase VET students’ labour market employability and stimulate their entrepreneurial mindsets and behaviours through open living labs, learning from the experts, collaborative learning and gamification.
Activities
- Interviews and discussions sessions with 12 VET educators, solar energy and immigration experts to discuss the challenges, opportunities and skills required in the solar energy sectors.
- Raise awareness of 5 educators and 20 students (including disadvantaged groups) on solar and PV applications through field trips, open living labs, information days, gamification, as well as Arduino workshops, and create the possibilities for internships.
- Organise the field trips for 4 VET trainees in order to understand the basic knowledge of operating and monitoring a photovoltaic system.
- Organise 2 days of transnational mobility to Swede for 2 VET educators in order to visit research and innovation organisations in the solar energy sector and discuss innovations and best practices.
Resources
- Development of the PVExperts Interactive Handbook with the introduction of innovative educational methodologies for training courses on photovoltaic (PV), photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) and solar thermal (ST) technologies, highlighting their importance in tackling climate change, and training students aiming to update future European workers’ skills.
- Development of the PVExperts Modules, to introduce solar energy concepts, raise students’ awareness of jobs opportunities in renewable energy to foster technical skills and competencies of mixed classes through partnerships between renewable energy companies and schools.
- Development a Handbook with guidelines, resources and tips for the educators to guide the workshops on microcontrollers and 3D-printing, plus 1 Digital Exhibition with concrete results (3D printed artifacts).
Impact
- 12 experts involved in online interviews and discussion will gain a greater understanding of opportunities in the solar energy sector, improving their technical skills, and fostering labour inclusion, especially for those from immigrant backgrounds.
- 5 educators and 20 students and young people from immigrant backgrounds, will gain knowledges on these professions in addressing climate change issues and job opportunities in the renewable energy sector.
- Guided field trips for 4 students from vocational education and training will provide them with hands-on experience on the operation of photovoltaic systems and intelligent monitoring and fault detection systems, facilitating direct exchange with industry experts and enriching their technical skills.
- 2 VET educators, will have the opportunity to improve their knowledges through mobility abroad, on innovations and good practices in the field of solar energy, which they will then be able to transfer to their students and promote the integration of advanced technologies and state-of-the-art methodologies in educational programmes.
- Students in vocational education and training will have the opportunity to participate in the Arduino workshops for solar applications, providing an in-depth understanding of smart technologies applied to solar energy systems, and will improve their practical skills in the use of innovative tools.
Partners
- Coordinator: The University of Gävle (HiG) (Sweden)
- Research Institute for Technological Evolution (RITE) (Cyprus)
- Centro per lo Sviluppo Creativo Danilo Dolci – ETS (Italy)
- Centros Escolares de Ensino Profissional (CEPROF) (Portugal)
- Srednja škola Ivanec (Croatia)
- Scholi Ekpaidefsis kai Katartisis Ammochostou Avgorou (Cyprus)
