An online battery industry training program which has already been rolled out in Spain will be introduced to France after the government signed a memorandum of understanding with the EU entity behind the skills courses.
A press release issued by a PR company to announce the pending arrival of ‘EBA250 Academy’ skills training in France stated the courses – for battery technicians, engineers and researchers – would train 150,000 people in France by 2025.
The training program, which also offers face-to-face training where required, has been devised by the InnoEnergy operation of EU research body the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and has already been introduced in Spain.
Today’s media release said the program – which addresses topics including electromobility, residential and grid scale storage, recycling and data science – will be deployed across other European nations this year and added, “any engineer or executives working in energy can apply.”
EIT InnoEnergy is in charge of coordinating the industrial work of the European Battery Alliance of industry and government bodies working to establish a sustainable battery supply chain in the EU. The alliance supplies the initialism in the name of the EBA250 Academy, which also refers to the €250 billion battery industry ambition the industrial grouping hopes to achieve by 2025.
Today’s statement said local training providers would offer the courses and that set-up may explain why the press release referred to the initiative as a public-private partnership. pv magazine has asked for clarification of the private sector aspect of the program.
European Commission VP Maroš Šefčovič, who launched the EBA in October 2017, welcomed the training initiative. Quoted in today’s press release, Šefčovič said 2021 “could be another defining year for the European Battery Alliance – also thanks to our resolute collective action to address the fast-emerging skills challenge. The new battery industry requires a new set of skills. Re-skilling and up-skilling programs, such as the EBA250 Academy, will, therefore, help match skills with labor market needs as well as reinforce the social dimension of Europe’s recovery. In this context, I am glad to see that Europe continues to be a global hotspot for battery investment. By 2025, we are set to manufacture enough battery cells each year to power at least six million electric cars.”
