The target of producing 20% of total EU energy consumption from renewable energy sources by 2020 was endorsed by EU leaders in March 2007. Starting from these premises, project DISCOVER proposes a strong cooperation between vocational education & training institutions and the work market in Europe. The project involves partners from all stakeholders’ areas in order to discover new working fields and employment fields, mainly related to Renewable Energy domain. The project addresses teachers, trainers and tutors working in the field of energy and professionals from schools / institutes and give answers to certain important issues:
– Searching for the sectors and the job areas related to renewable energy;
– Career guidance, counseling and searching employment opportunities in the sectors of renewable energy sources;
– Integration of skills needs of the labor market into VET;
– Encouraging the usages of the renewable energy sources;
– Environmental protection
Renewable energy replaces conventional fuels in four distinct areas: electricity generation, hot water/space heating, motor fuels and rural (off-grid) energy services. Actually about 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewable resources, with 10% of all energy from traditional biomass, mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from hydroelectricity. New renewables (small hydro, modern biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, and biofuels) accounted for another 3% and are growing very rapidly. While many renewable energy projects are large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development and small solar PV systems could provide electricity to a few million households, and micro-hydro configured into mini-grids serves many more.
The Association Centrul de Training European organized on 3rd of April a Workshop dedicated to Renewable Energy and training in VET, in order to make more visible our preoccupation in this domain.
The agenda included the presentation of some technical and technological new devices such as: Stand-alone Renewable Hybrid Power Generation System for an insulated house or devices for converting solar energy into electricity; research studies in the field of power engineering, in order to reduce energy consumption in domestic houses.
Another subject on the Worksop Agenda was related to Intelligent Building Management and Smart building controller with main topics referring to:
– How to use a system configuration defined for a specific environment by a particular user
– Executes and monitors automatically operations based on schedules and policies
– Communication with Configurator, Environment Manager, Policy Editor, Simulation Engine
The project team from Eskişehir Elektrikçiler Odasi, Turkey made a very practical and useful presentation on Posıtıve Effects of Renewable Energy Markets on the Turkish Economy.
“Romanian Vocational Education” presentation made by University of Pitesti partner comprised ideas about new jobs in Romania related to the Renewable Energy field.
Another important point on this meeting Agenda was related on “New methods of training in VET based on interactive lessons on renewable Energy” presented by European Training Center’s team.
The Nucleo Ambientale a Cavallo, our project partner from Italy, came with an important alarm signal related to new regulations: incentives for Renewable Energy in Italy that has maintained a significant boost employment in this sector declined over the past few years.
In mid-2013, the incentive for solar energy was removed in Italy and the entire sector that has created from 2007 to 2013 thousands of jobs, had a sharp slowdown.
The meeting was concluded by the project coordinator, Gazi Meslek Yuksekokulu from GAZI University, with an overview of the projects objectives, strategy and results and with a public invitation to participants to benefit from the project’s results.
More information about the project can be found at: http://www.leonardo-discover.eu/forum
