The success of marketing a new technology hinges on the number of people who know how to install, maintain and repair it properly. In 2014, the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking launched the KnowHy project to disseminate knowledge of fuel cell technologies that had reached near-market maturity. Supported by the European Commission’s 7th Framework Program, the project became more detailed as the years passed. Now fully developed, it will continue until 2020.
The aim of KnowHy has been to combat the current lack of industry specialists by helping to train technicians early on, so that there will be enough people experienced in systems and components when the time has come for new fuel cell technologies to hit the market. Until 2020, KnowHy will offer training sessions to interested tradesmen and anyone else employed in the H2 and fuel cell industry in the EU.
Online and offline training
Between 2014 and 2016, the partners of the project developed hands-on training modules for a total of six courses: one core module of around 40 hours and five on specialization with around 60 hours each to cover fuel cell generators, CHP, hydrogen production and handling, micro-sized fuel cells, and H2 fuel cells in transportation. The courses are being offered in seven languages – Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish – and have already been taught in many European countries.
Training begins online with an e-learning section, the content of which trainees will learn on their own (see also “blended learning” on p. 37). Course participants acquire the relevant expertise in four to six chapters with the help of videos, explanations and figures. A test at the end of each chapter will, if passed, unlock the next. Only after passing the final test on all chapters will a trainee be admitted to the one-day hands-on seminar to apply the knowledge to real-life examples and attend tutoring classes. Whoever succeeds in completing all tasks will be rewarded with a KnowHy certificate.
Europe-wide offerings
The creators of the KnowHy concept intend to …
Michael Geis from the Institute for Energy Systems, a department of TU Munich, told H2-international: “After a short time refreshing what we had been taught in the online module, we got …
Munich options
The kickoff workshop of KnowHy took place on May 25, 2016, during the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Technical Conference in Birmingham, UK. From September 2016, courses were also held in the Netherlands, Italy, Spain and the UK; overall, 140 students registered. Since last November, there have been additional offerings at TU Munich in Germany and in Belgium, France and Portugal.
To register, please visit www.knowhy.eu/registration/.