HySkills Erasmus Project

Project Title

HySkills

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

CONTEXT & RATIONALE
As the UK and EU strive to meet greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions targets, and pledging to the Paris Agreement, it is certain that newer green and sustainable technologies will be adopted powered by renewable energy sources. One such source is “green” hydrogen (H2), which can be used in transport, industry and domestically as a means of decarbonisation. Demonstrating their commitment, the UK government announced £90M funding in February 2020 to reduce carbon emissions, with £28m specifically for projects related to green H2 production in order to move away from “grey” H2 (produced using fossil fuels). Meanwhile, in the wider European Union, The Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU) which consists of the European Commission, Hydrogen Europe and Hydrogen Europe Research, has provided funding to many H2 projects. The funding, from FCH JU and other sources, including private and national/regional funding in Horizon 2020 equates to over €1.5B. The funded projects (in progress and already completed) demonstrate the viability of utilising green H2 while also attesting to the commitment of transitioning to renewable energy use by many countries. H2 can be used in a range of technologies; including fuel cell vehicles (FCV) and combined heat and power (CHP) units. H2 offers many benefits as a fuel source and energy carrier including the ability to store and transport a large amount of energy. When used to power a fuel cell, it produces only water as a by-product of combustion.
Collectively, the partnership has recognised a clear need that must be addressed; as new green H2 technologies (and associated systems) are adopted there must be a fully equipped workforce with the ability to work with H2 in a critically safe manner. It has been recognised that this transition will result in the creation of many skilled jobs transnationally;therefore there will be a need for appropriate safety training, technical competency training and accreditation for those workers moving into the sector (including the manufacture of H2 vehicles, H2 refuelling stations and fuel cell power generators). Specifically, the following has been identified as being required for the future workforce:
• A sound knowledge and understanding of the potential hazards of H2 in its various states.
• Knowledge of safety implications involving working with H2.
• Technical skills.
• Accredited safety skills.
Universities already focus on higher level skills and knowledge (undergrad/Masters level). However, vocational skills& accreditation relating to fundamental health and safety competence are not widely in existence or easily accessible in the partner locations. Therefore, a specialist curriculum is required, not to develop a new discipline of engineer or technician, but to develop technical ability and competency within existing disciplines (mechanical, electrical etc.) and for VET learners in order to upskill the many different sectors who will also be directly impacted by the transition to green H2 utilisation. Given this context, in order to develop the appropriate skills pipeline, research will be carried out by the partners in the relevant locations with stakeholders to directly align skills development with industry needs in this sustainable sector.
OBJECTIVES
The transnational partnership aims to develop a modular training course enhanced with practical training focused on the subject of H2 safety skills. The project will also seek to attain and implement a suitable method of accreditation for the course. The course will therefore allow future workers to become fully competent and attain accreditation in key skills for this critical sector. HySkills will also develop a comprehensive teacher training programme to ensure VET trainers have the disciplinary knowledge, technical expertise and pedagogical techniques to effectively deliver VET for this sector. The main objectives are:
1. To undertake a comparative needs analysis across 5 EU countries to map the relevant safety and technical skills of future workforce in the H2 sector in order to aid the design and development of the HySkills curriculum and learning outcomes.
2. To enhance the labour market relevance of VET learners by designing a modular training course and practical learning to develop accredited safety skills with the intention of creating a workforce fully equipped to integrate into the H2 sector.
3. To initially strengthen the key competences of 90 learners through the pilot delivery of the HySkills modular training course within the partner institutions.
4. To develop and pilot a teacher training programme to 50 teachers and trainers to enable the effective delivery of specialised cross-disciplinary engineering VET.
5. To introduce modern training delivery methods (interactive case studies, project-based learning) and open access pedagogical resources (e.g. online toolkit) for staff and learners across Europe building capacity for the future H2 workforce

Project Website

https://www.swc.ac.uk/discover/news/news/april-2021/south-west-college-secure-funding-to-help-decarbon

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 356042 Eur

Project Coordinator

SOUTH WEST COLLEGE & Country: UK

Project Partners

• DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY
• EUROPAISCHES INSTITUT FUR INNOVATION-TECHNOLOGIE EV
• UNIVERSITETET I TROMSOE – NORGES ARKTISKE UNIVERSITET
• HELLENIC SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGIES ASTIKI ETAIRIA