EIT InnoEnergy launches Skills Institute to combat significant energy transition skills gap

The InnoEnergy Skills Institute is an evolution of EIT InnoEnergy’s highly successful European Battery Alliance (EBA) Academy, expanding to also include green hydrogen and solar photovoltaics (PV) value chains. Its agile, modular approach to training will deliver the latest trends and training with adaptable, customisable courses and programmes that meet specific needs, regardless of location, size, or technology. Greater numbers benefitting from industry-leading training is a vital step in equipping the global workforce with the knowledge and expertise needed to decarbonise the energy economy.

NIIT has been chosen as a strategic learning services partner of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, providing services including onboarding, learning journey creation, training of teaching staff, and ensuring local training nuances are catered for. The main goal of the partnership is to leverage NIIT’s presence and capabilities as a global talent development leader to rapidly scale and create the highly skilled and certified human capital essential for rapid transition to green energy.

The InnoEnergy Skills Institute will benefit from NIIT’s global reach and infra-structure, ensuring it can deploy services at pace and scale, accelerating training across Europe, North America, and Asia. NIIT and EIT InnoEnergy will work together on thought leadership initiatives as part of the strategic relationship. The transition to net zero will require retraining up to 18 million workers around the world. For example, between 2015 and 2030, the amount of solar PV jobs is expected to quadruple. With 2023 marking the EU’s Year of Skills, the launch coincides with wider governmental initiatives to address the growing concerns about future-proofing the workforce.

Oana Penu, Director of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, said: “Industries central to the energy transition will see a dramatic uplift in the need for new skills and expertise to drive progress. In fact, in the battery workforce alone, more than 700 new job types will come into play as required skillsets highly diversify. So, it is not a surprise that 71% of CEOs already cite skills shortages as their most significant business challenge. We're dedicated to supporting green innovations of the future and ensuring there is a trained workforce to achieve climate goals. Our strategic partnership with NIIT will leverage its leadership in global talent development to help make this a reality.”

EIT InnoEnergy’s leading role in key industrial alliances spanning energy, storage, green hydrogen, and PV mean it is perfectly placed to expedite the upskilling of workers across the energy industry. Through the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, businesses, universities, and training providers can benefit from courses supported by a range of sector experts, alliances, and partnerships.

Sailesh Lalla, Chief Business Officer at NIIT, added: “We are delighted to sup-port EIT InnoEnergy with its latest advancement in the training and development domain. Decarbonisation is the next industrial revolution leading to an unprecedented demand for skilled clean tech professionals. We are launching a pivotal initiative in Green Energy Skills with this partnership. With EIT InnoEnergy’s domain expertise and industry knowledge and NIIT’s education services industry leadership, our goal is to ensure that the InnoEnergy Skills Institute is recognised as a leading destination and thought leader for decarbonisation and green skills across Europe, North America, and Asia. With the combined strengths of both companies, we aspire to create a world-leading solution to the burning need for upskilling and reskilling across industries to create a flexible workforce that is adaptable to changing requirements.”

For more news and technical articles from the global renewable indus-try, read the latest issue of Energy Global magazine.

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The Spring 2023 issue of Energy Global hosts an array of technical articles focusing on offshore wind, solar technology, energy storage, green hydrogen, waste-to-energy, and more. This issue also features a regional report on commodity chal-lenges facing Asia’s energy transition.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/special-reports/08052023/eit-innoenergy-launches-skills-institute-to-combat-significant-energy-transition-skills-gap/