Skills, Qualification and Recruitment of Professionals for the district heating and cooling (DHC) sector

Introduction

Skills4DHC addresses both challenges, namely the need to develop skills and qualifications of professionals, but also to recruit enough professionals for the district heating and cooling (DHC) sector.

Objectives

The overall objective of the Skills4DHC project is to strengthen the capacity of targeted professionals across the DHC value chain and to meet the growing demand for skilled employees and workers for the ambitious sustainable energy transition plans of the heating sector in Europe.

Target Groups

Skills4DHC broadly covers the target groups of DHC qualification:

• Staff of DHC branch enterprises
• White collar civil servants in national, regional, and local level authorities, trained for administrating heat planning and developing DHC on site
• Young academic generation through a university course program
• Blue collar workers urgently needed for the construction, operation, and maintenance of new DHC systems

Recruitment activities aim at additionally winning trainees for these training offers and binding them to the DHC sector.

Training Development

In cooperation with training organizations and industry, Skills4DHC develops a total of 13 specific DHC training schemes structured in programs for the different sector target groups and DHC topics.

Key Training Content

Key training content includes:

1. Decarbonization of existing DHC based on the use of renewable energies and waste heat
2. Network efficiency
3. Extension of markets with new climate-neutral DHC

The training programs are tested and verified in six target countries: Austria, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, and The Netherlands.

Replication and Transfer

A replication program, as well as a dedicated universal transnational training program, will transfer the developed concepts to other countries in Europe.

Conclusion

This will boost the heat transition in Europe through an increase of sustainable DHC systems implemented by a skilled and trained workforce.