Building a Greener Tomorrow!
The energy sector is transforming rapidly, with the last two decades making a crucial shift towards a decarbonized economy. This shift is both an environmental necessity and an economic imperative. The foundation of this change lies in societal evolution through increased awareness, education, and the development of new skills and habits.
Oana Penu is a key figure in this innovative learning landscape. As the Director of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, she is responsible for steering the business strategy focused on product development. Her vision aims to reduce time to productivity, cut organizational costs, and enhance learner engagement and behavioral change while ensuring seamless delivery.
Oana’s impactful work is conducted at EIT InnoEnergy, an organization at the forefront of the energy transition. EIT InnoEnergy combines technology, business model innovation, and essential skills to drive decarbonization and re-industrialization. Within this mission, the InnoEnergy Skills Institute focuses on developing skills and fostering industry partnerships to boost workforce upskilling and reskilling.
The Skills Institute has a dual mission: addressing public skill development needs and fulfilling a commercial imperative. Its growth is evident through initiatives like the expanding Local Training Provider network and innovative learning tools such as the ‘Green Energy City’ Minecraft world. The Institute is dedicated to unlocking human potential within the broader mission of EIT InnoEnergy.
The Director’s leadership is centered on bringing about positive change while fostering a culture of success. She is committed to business model innovation, shaping market strategies, and creating products that add value for customers and learners.
Exploring Oana’s Innovations in Learning for Environmental Change
Pathways to a Carbon-Free Economy
Penu believes we are at a pivotal moment in human history, with a tremendous opportunity to accelerate the transition to a decarbonized economy. With a background in environmental economics, Oana quickly realized that ecological change needs economic support to trigger a fundamental shift from fossil fuels to a carbon-free economy. She observed that stagnant growth and crises often drive significant transitions.
Strategic Partnerships for Greater Impact
Strategic partnerships are crucial to Oana’s work, and her organization has matured significantly over time. With a strong core team, the Skills Institute has established strategic alliances with NIIT and ManpowerGroup, allowing them to extend their upskilling and reskilling services to a broader audience. These partnerships enable the delivery of high-quality services on a large scale.
One major challenge in Europe is the need for upskilling and reskilling to support clean energy initiatives. The Skills Institute aims to address this challenge by leveraging its international network, ultimately benefiting the European market. The Institute has enriched its ecosystem with agreements with various entities, including 12 MOUs with Member States, regions, and international organizations. The most recent agreement was signed with Ireland, adding to previous agreements with countries such as Hungary, Romania, Sweden, France, Spain, and others.
A key partnership that has significantly accelerated the impact of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute is with ManpowerGroup. This partnership has increased learner numbers and enhanced visibility in the recruitment industry. Additionally, the collaboration with NIIT, a global managed training services provider, has expanded the Local Training Provider network, leveraging NIIT’s extensive global network of 4000 partners.
Collaborative Approaches to Upskilling and Reskilling
Oana acknowledges several challenges in Europe, such as a lack of standardized industry skill lists, definitions, and recognition. Language barriers and mobility inertia within an aging population further complicate the issue. She emphasizes the need for collaboration among all stakeholders with a skills mandate, putting the learner or worker at the center of their approach and narrative.
The InnoEnergy Skills Institute was created to address critical timing issues. By 2025, 800,000 new jobs will be available in the battery value chain, 65,000 new jobs in solar manufacturing, and around 100,000 new jobs in green hydrogen by 2030. Oana sees an opportunity to develop engaging skilling products that change worker behavior and reduce time to productivity.
To achieve this mission, the Skills Institute partners with the European Commission, Member States, and local authorities to create standardized solutions vetted by the industry. They rely heavily on education and industry partners to develop high-quality content and local training providers to deliver this content to learners and workers.
Three-Fold Product Framework to Tackle the Challenge at Scale
The InnoEnergy Skills Institute offers a comprehensive three-fold product framework to propel organizations forward while placing the learner or worker at the heart of the transition. Under Oana’s leadership, the team develops innovative services spanning skills intelligence, training, and certification, ensuring robust outcomes, improved productivity, enhanced employee retention, and an unwavering commitment to safety and compliance.
- Skills Intelligence Services (Skills Compass): This service provides invaluable insights into organizational skill requirements, empowering companies to pinpoint precise talent needs. Since its release, it has generated significant market interest, affirming the value of a data-driven approach.
- Training: Tailored learning journeys are crafted from an expanding course library featuring both self-created and third-party content for enterprises. This ensures their workforce acquires essential competencies for today’s energy landscape. A network of trainers, with 87 certified trainers, supports blended learning delivery. The integration of third-party content, including courses from ALBATTS and Fraunhofer, is progressing well, with additional content from XU and other international partners expected to expand offerings in 2024. The courses and immersive experiences are designed to address learning objectives for specific job roles, built like Lego bricks for different learning journeys. These include serious games, lab practices, and immersive AR/VR experiences. Successful learners receive certifications upon passing exams.
- Certification: Industry-endorsed certifications validate competencies across sectors, enhancing employee confidence and fostering a culture of excellence. This framework equips learners to excel in emerging sectors like solar PV, storage, and green hydrogen, fostering growth and sustainability.
The InnoEnergy Skills Institute’s learner engagement has grown significantly, having reached 67,169 individuals at the end of 2023. This positive trend aligns with the target of 100,000 learners by the end of 2024.
Key factors driving this growth include:
- Partnerships with key organizations, such as APAVE (France), FESTO (Germany), and RISE (Sweden).
- Active involvement in national initiatives such as Ecole de la Baterie, Electro’Mob, and Battena in France.
- Commercial agreements with industry partners to address specific skill gaps.
- Strategic partnership with ManpowerGroup, utilizing the Talent Shop program for upskilling and reskilling.
Innovative Learning Products for Young People
Oana believes that education blended with innovation and immersive experiences can profoundly transform young minds, shaping the architects of a sustainable future. This philosophy led to the creation of the Green Energy City in Minecraft, engaging Generation Alpha. With over 1 million downloads since its launch in October 2023, it has captured the interest of gamers and educators, highlighting the appeal of educational and entertaining renewable energy content.
Evaluating Learning Impact
The Skills Institute is implementing a new framework to measure the impact of its learning experiences. This framework evaluates the number of workers trained, time to productivity, time to employment (if applicable), and self-reported salary improvements.
Empowering Teams for Optimal Performance
Empowering her team to leverage their strengths and perform at their best is incredibly important to Penu. She fosters a climate of trust where experiments are encouraged, and failures are seen as learning experiences leading to future success.
The Data-Driven Future of Workforce Development
Oana envisions a data-driven future for workforce development in sustainability and manufacturing, emphasizing continuous learning, curiosity, critical thinking, creativity, and ethics. She dreams of everyone finding purposeful work that leverages their strengths and fosters unconstrained thinking.
A Perspective on Advice
Cautious about giving advice, Oana believes individuals should take ownership of their lives and careers and follow their inner compass. She resonates with the French saying, “Whoever gives advice doesn’t pay the bill,” emphasizing personal responsibility for our choices. She encourages curiosity, testing, experimenting, discovering passions, and utilizing all available resources, including the InnoEnergy Skills Institute.
Aligning Training with Market Demands
The Skills Institute operates like a business, needing to generate revenue and invest it wisely. Training prioritization for job roles follows a three-step approach: market research, using an AI-powered HR tool to identify the most demanded job families, and validating specific job roles through focus groups and interviews with strategic partners. This ensures alignment with market demands.
Driving a Positive Impact on Sustainability
Oana continues to positively impact sustainability and renewable energy through her work. In a world driven by consumption, she aims to build initiatives that help people become better versions of themselves. She aspires to help individuals stay relevant and thrive in a changing world, motivated by the potential positive impact on people’s lives.
