^{28.11.2022 - from Alicia Altendeitering}

 Climate change is a challenge that plays a crucial role in education and training activities. Both the energy transition and green technologies must be advanced. For this reason, students and skilled workers need education that addresses the tasks and further develops innovative solutions. The Sustainable Technologies Laboratory, together with a consortium of European universities, companies and training institutions, is starting to develop best-practices concepts for climate-adaptable teaching.

As part of this new Erasmus+ funded EU research project „Sustainable Energy Education (SEED)“ researchers Désirée Rottmann and Alicia Altendeitering from the Sustainable Technologies Laboratory traveled to Turku, Finland from October 10 - 13, 2022 for the kick-off meeting.

The SEED project aims to align education and qualification concepts for people in the EU with the requirements of a sustainable post-fossil society. Therefore, 14 project partners consisting of universities, companies and training institutions from Finland, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany have joined forces to promote good practice examples in the field of education for sustainable energy systems and to share experiences in the joint project. The universities involved include the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht (NL), which is acting as coordinator, Turku University of Applied Sciences (FI), Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (ES), University of Western Macedonia (GR) and Bochum University of Applied Sciences. The project is intended to enable mutual learning from each other. 

The kick off meeting took place at the project partners in Turku, Finland. Besides getting to know each other in person, the focus was on discussing common goals and the vision of the project. Furthermore, the branding of the project as well as key points for the project management and the thematic orientation were worked out.

Another focus of the workshop was the topic of skills and abilities. Since the goal of the project is mainly based on the transfer of knowledge and skills in the field of sustainable energy systems, the participants themselves were introduced to some skills in the field of solar energy and green skills. 

Another goal of the kick off meeting was to get to know the partner companies, Turku University of Applied Sciences and good practice examples in the field of education for sustainable energy. Several tours were conducted to introduce the different research and especially teaching facilities for education. From a machine technology center, a fab lab, a solar system testing station and a versatile vocational school, the Turku site was able to present many of its institutions.

The next face-to-face meeting of the project partners will take place in March 2023 at Bochum University of Applied Sciences.

• Funding program: Erasmus+
• Refernce number: 101056147
• Funding source: European Commission