Future Heat Heroes: training skilled heating professionals
Developing educational infrastructure for a successful Heating Transition
Future Heat Heroes: training skilled heating professionals
The Heating Transition is a key part of the Dutch energy transition: heating homes, commercial premises and public buildings using sustainable energy sources. Heat networks are essential to this, but a shortage of suitably qualified employees is holding things back. The Future Heat Heroes project was launched by the Entrance campus office to develop educational infrastructure for well-trained heating professionals. Witteveen+Bos is one of the partners*.
Switching to sustainable sources for natural gas-free heating makes a significant contribution to the Netherlands’ climate targets. These targets are aimed at reducing carbon emissions and achieving climate neutrality by 2050. To achieve a reduction of 3.4 megatonnes of CO₂, 1.5 million existing homes and other buildings must be made more sustainable.
Guiding principles
This can be achieved using green gas or hydrogen, but electrification (heat pumps, electric boilers) and heat networks are proving more attractive from an economic and technical perspective. Green gas and green hydrogen are currently insufficiently available (for homes), and heat pumps and electric boilers quickly lead to grid congestion. That is why the ambition has been set to have approximately 750,000 homes connected to a heat network by 2030. In short, heat networks are set to become a key component of the Heating Transition.
The current generation of heat networks is not sufficiently advanced and is therefore not socio-economically future-proof. In order to achieve the CO₂ reduction targets, it is essential to develop the knowledge needed to increase the complexity across the entire heating chain, whilst at the same time simplifying the roll-out process to ensure that a sufficient number of homes are supplied with natural gas-free heating by 2030.
Shortage of qualified employees
At the same time, it is vital that this in-depth knowledge is also integrated into the education system – across the entire learning pathway and at all levels: vocational education (MBO), higher professional education (HBO) and university education (WO). There is already a shortage of qualified employees, and this reality is holding back the development of heat networks. Through Future Heat Heroes, we are tackling this educational challenge.
The aim of this programme is to identify and properly train future heating professionals; these heating engineers are essential and indispensable for achieving the Heating Transition.
The objectives and outcomes of Future Heat Heroes:
- Establishing a pilot facility at Entrance, where the Built Environment in villages and neighbourhoods across the region is simulated;
- to develop flexible and interdisciplinary training programmes for vocational education (MBO), higher professional education (HBO) and lifelong learning (LLO);
- a continuous learning pathway that is and will be enriched with the knowledge and training programmes developed;
- learning communities in which multidisciplinary knowledge is continuously developed through applied research;
- a strong, regional knowledge ecosystem, in which relevant stakeholders involved in the Heating Transition are in contact with one another to exchange knowledge and experience.
Witteveen+Bos in Future Heat Heroes
From our campus office at Entrance in Groningen, Witteveen+Bos is one of the committed project partners. ‘Together with contractors, installers, and educational and research institutions, we are training the next generation of heating talent,’ explains Jimme Zoete, project manager on behalf of Witteveen+Bos.
‘In this way, we aim to set an example for and contribute to supply chain integration. The complexity of the energy transition lies in the fact that we must not only plan it, but also implement it immediately and make adjustments along the way. This complexity places high demands on education, the market and talent. It is precisely this challenge that we are tackling within Future Heat Heroes.’
Furthermore, participating in a programme that brings together education, talent development and the energy transition is very much in line with Witteveen+Bos’s strategic objectives, in which stimulating and promoting technical education at various levels and contributing to the sustainability targets for 2050 are key pillars.
European grant from the JTF
Future Heat Heroes is funded by the Just Transition Fund (JTF), implemented by SNN and co-funded by the European Union. The JTF is a European fund for a just energy transition that supports projects where stakeholders collaborate towards a fossil-free economy with new job opportunities.
Partners
The following partners are collaborating within Future Heat Heroes: Hanze, Alfa-college, WarmteStad, Witteveen+Bos, Koninklijke Oosterhof Holman, TCB, Abiant, De Groot Installatiegroep.
More information
