EIT InnoEnergy and T2 College collaborate to help transform Skellefteå, Sweden into an industrial hub for electrification and battery storage


Sweden – 24 February 2020
EIT InnoEnergy, Europe's sustainable energy innovation engine, has partnered with vocational training provider T2 College to bring specialist electrification and battery storage skills to Sweden’s burgeoning industrial hubs.

The partnership is a vital next step in ensuring a pipeline of skilled workers who can ease the current skills gap across energy and storage. With Skellefteå the home of Europe’s first gigafactory, Northvolt Ett, the town was an obvious choice to agree this first partnership. To 2050, the town expects to welcome 28,000 new inhabitants, many of whom will be attracted to the area by the forthcoming industrial storage hub. At the same time, the hub will present new employment opportunities for local people, and a demand for training to facilitate re-skilling and up-skilling. 

EIT InnoEnergy will develop and deliver new course content through T2 College, collaborating with industry to better understand the skills most valuable to the transition to a smarter, more flexible grid. Through competency-based training, combining online materials and face-to-face interactions, professional learners will be up-skilled or re-skilled to support the transition to a more electrified future.

Kenneth Johansson, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy Scandinavia, comments, “As we accelerate our efforts to transition to a more sustainable world, ensuring we have a skilled workforce will be key. Using our knowledge from facilitating MSc and professional learning programmes, as well as our extensive network of experts and educational institutions, we can help nurture and attract the best minds right here in Skellefteå where the potential for energy innovation is high, boosting the skills needed to achieve the transition.”

Maria Marklund, CEO of T2 College adds, “There is a huge opportunity for current workers to reskill for the changing world which can help address the skills gap. By partnering with EIT InnoEnergy, we can help alleviate future skills pressures by educating on key topics such as electrification and storage combining existing EIT InnoEnergy materials and insights with our bespoke approach to training to foster competitiveness in the industry.

This new initiative, designed with tackling the skills gap in mind, builds on EIT InnoEnergy’s existing work in the sector. EIT InnoEnergy offers numerous online, face-to-face and blended courses as well as eight sustainable energy Master’s programmes. The partnership with T2 offers a new opportunity to develop tomorrow’s talent to support the energy transition.

T2 is a specialist educational college, located close to Northvolt’s Gigafactory, putting it at the heart of the battery revolution. T2’s unique approach to tailoring education allows it to adapt and evolve to support electrification and decarbonisation efforts.
The first pilot programme will be delivered in spring with further course refinement planned for summer. EIT InnoEnergy continues to seek further partnerships to provide electrification and battery storage skills.
ENDS

About EIT InnoEnergy
EIT InnoEnergy is the innovation engine for sustainable energy across Europe.  
We support and invest in innovation at every stage of the journey – from classroom to end-customer. With our network of partners, we build connections across Europe, bringing together inventors and industry, graduates and employers, researchers and entrepreneurs, businesses and markets.

We work in three essential areas of the innovation mix:
·         Education to help create an informed and ambitious workforce that understands the demands of sustainability and the needs of industry.
·         Innovation Projects to bring together ideas, inventors and industry to create commercially attractive technologies that deliver real results to customers.
·         Business Creation Services to support entrepreneurs and start-ups who are expanding Europe’s energy ecosystem with their innovative offerings.
Bringing these disciplines together maximises the impact of each, accelerates the development of market-ready solutions, and creates a fertile environment in which we can sell the innovative results of our work.

InnoEnergy was established in 2010 and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).
 
About T2 College
T2 college works with industrial companies to create sustainable development in the industry. We believe the solution for creating growth is to take advantage of new technologies and inspire tomorrow's industrial workers with new, smart solutions.
T2 College collaborates on upper secondary education in industry and technology, provides adult education and competence-enhancing training for companies. Common to all education is the combination of theory and practical learning in close contact with business and industry. It gives students the opportunity to gather knowledge and at the same time create networks that are will help secure jobs after graduation.