H2CoVE: equipping the European labour market with skills for the hydrogen economy

The main goal of H2CoVE is to equip the European labour market with the necessary professional skills for industries in the hydrogen economy. Five regions – Vestland in Norway, Northern Netherlands, Tyrol in Austria, Estonia, and the Precarpathian region in Ukraine – are pooling their knowledge and expertise to build local skills ecosystems.

Investing in knowledge sharing

The need for investments in infrastructure for hydrogen production, storage, and applications is enormous. This also requires well-trained workers. The partner regions of H2CoVE have various resources and capabilities that complement each other across the hydrogen value chain. Through collaboration, they aim to increase capacity in all of Europe. Governments need to create the right environment and incentives for businesses to invest and accelerate the hydrogen economy. H2CoVE will contribute to this by:

1. Connecting citizens, education- and research institutes and companies to keep sharing knowledge and innovation about hydrogen skills. This happens on a European level via uniquely designed platforms.
2. The improvement of the necessary knowledge and skills of students and (potential) employees about basic- and advanced applications of the hydrogen economy.
3. Developing, updating, and testing courses, modules, and educational programmes that meet the needs of the industry in the partner regions. This will be done at various levels of vocational education and in an inclusive manner.
4. Ensuring European added value and sustainability of project results by embedding and transferring best practices between regions and ecosystems across Europe.

Result: teachers, students and the private sector increase knowledge

The collaboration, consisting of 27 knowledge institutions across Europe, aims to involve 150 teachers/lecturers from various levels of vocational education in Train-the-Trainer programmes and attract approximately 800 stakeholders from the business community. 1000 employees will participate in upskilling and reskilling activities, and 140 students will take part in a specially designed project competition for challenge-based learning. At least 12 projects/bachelor's/master's theses will be written on real challenges in the sector.