Theory and practice of European co-operative education and training for the support of energy transition

• Published in: Energy, sustainability and society sustainability and society, 2019-07, Vol.9 (1), p.1-12, Article 29
• Main Authors: Maier, Stephan, Narodoslawsky, Michael, Borell-Damián, Lidia, Arentsen, Maarten, Kienberger, Marlene, Bauer, Wolfgang, Ortner, Maria, Foxhall, Nigel, Oswald, Gerhard, Joval, Joan-Marc, Krozer, Yoram, Urbanz, Theresa, Sakulin, Christian, Tihamer-Tibor, Sebestyen, Dobravec, Viktorija
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Business; Case studies; Co-operative education and training; Colleges & universities; Correctional institutions; Curricula; Dual learning; Economics and Management; Education; Educational partnerships; Energiewende; Energy; Energy Policy; Energy technology; Energy transition; Energy turn; Higher education; Higher education institutions; Institutions; Internships; Learning; Legal issues; Original Article; Renewable and Green Energy; Statistical analysis; Sustainable Development; Training
• ISSN: 2192-0567; 2192-0567
• DOI: 10.1186/s13705-019-0213-4

Background European visions such as the European Commission’s Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan and the SET Plan Roadmap Education and Training encourages higher education institutions (HEI) and business to establish adequate co-operative education and training approaches in the face of the challenges posed by the energy transition necessary to achieve European Union’s climate goals. The development of integrated co-operative education, training and learning systems is a fundamental strategy to foster co-operation between academic institutions and business. Methods Available sources about the theoretical and practical knowledge of co-operative education and training are limited. To identify available information and create new information where there is no this research was carried out by means of a literature study and a database search on existing co-operative education formats. This was supplemented by an analysis of seven actual case study reports regarding examples drawn from the BioEnergyTrain (BET) project commissioned under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme. Results Co-operation for educational purposes between higher education institutions (HEI) and business exists on the curricular, course and internship level.Considering the total number of studies on a curricular level in Europe, only very few co-operative education programmes exist. On the curricular level, most of the appropriate formats are dual studies with Bachelors’ programmes, fewer are dual studies with Master’s programmes. Co-operation formats on the course level do not follow institutionalised rules and are case-specifically applied. The studies presented in this journal dealing with practical examples emphasise the high potential for improving student’s skills and insight into business that such co-operative formats offer to universities and business partners.Co-operation on an internship level has a long tradition of exposing students to the business environment they will later work in. Internships however do not provide high-intensity co-operation between business and HEIs. Therefore, it is outside the focus of this paper’s attention. Results of statistical analysis reveal a total number of 19,822 related dual study programmes in the year 2018 alone in Germany whereas, for co-operative curricula on a master’s level, just 73 can be tracked in whole Europe. Results of the case study reports are further discussed in Additional files 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 and 8 . Dis