Merylin Pill
It is no secret that the energy sector is changing, which also means that re-educating employees, for example in the oil shale industry, is necessary. In Estonia, several labour market surveys have been carried out regarding this matter and now the government has also started to support this mission through a national program aimed to enforce re-education. SMAGRINET’s smart grid training course in Estonian is now part of this program.
This means that SMAGRINET is bigger than ever.
At the end of 2020, the Republic of Estonia announced a program aimed at re-educating adults in areas important to the country - energy is one those fields. The aim of the program is to motivate adults to re-educate and to create high-quality, flexible learning opportunities through educational institutions such as TalTech, that take into account the development needs of the labour market. The courses would be free of charge.
TalTech's desire was to take the initiative to pass on SMAGRINET knowledge.
The Estonian energy labour market survey states that “In energy and mining, the need for labour is declining and the need for skills of the workforce is changing significantly. Consequently, the state should plan suitable re-education opportunities for employees in the field ”. Considering also the increased price of CO2 and the possible end of oil shale energy, it is necessary to ensure the possibility of re-education the employees in the field.
SMAGRINET now provides this re-education opportunity, as the course addresses all the important areas reshaping the future of the energy sector, such as digital solutions in energy systems, cybersecurity, information systems, smart grid solutions. All of those fields are highlighted in the Estonain labour market survey as important energy development skills!
That is why the SMAGRINET short-term training course was approved, as this course ticks all the necessary boxes – it is relevant regarding the situation today – and it is online. The course is SMAGRINET short-term course translated to Estonian, aimed to get a bigger reach among Estonians.
Already, prominent Estonian companies in the energy sector have registered for the course, and the number of participants is growing every day. There are currently 60 people registered in just two weeks, which is already significant. We aim to train at least 100 people.
It's definitely not going to stop there. SMAGRINET will become the cornerstone of re-education opportunities and will remain accessible to people. Government support is a great recognition to increase SMAGRINET's influence.