Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

Does sustainable development need new recognised occupations?

Skills and occupations in the area of sustainable use of energy and renewable energies

Klaus Hahne

Skills and occupations in the area of sustainable use of energy and renewable energies

Renewable energies are the epitome of responsible and sustainable treatment of natural resources. This also has implications for vocational education and training.
Within the concept of vocational education and training for sustainable development, the central issue is, therefore, which skills are required for sustainable treatment of energy and for the wide application of renewable energies.

The following article explains the concept of vocational education and training for sustainable development and, using renewable energies as an example, demonstrates the importance of the development of structural and systems competence in crafts trade companies. It also considers the recognised occupations which are suited to activities within the field of renewable energies and explains the benefits which would come from a regulated occupation offering initial training in renewable energies.

Vocational education and training for sustainable development

The central idea of sustainable development is the investigation of the sustainability of social, technological and economic developments within the context of maintaining a natural basis of existence. In a nutshell, this involves not living today at the expense of tomorrow and not allowing economic activity in one place to impact negatively on another. The federal government has identified sustainable development as a central theme for the beginning of the 21st century and the United Nations (UN) have declared a "World Decade of Education for Sustainable Development" ⁰¹ . The central aim of vocational education and training for sustainable development is to enable people to structure professional action situations in accordance with the basic idea of sustainability ⁰² . To this end, the basis of professional action needs to be clarified in ecological, economic and social terms and carefully considered. "Structural competence for sustainable development" has already been identified as an overarching educational aim within the general education system ⁰³ . In vocational education, alongside the development of the relevant specialist skills, system competence is added, and this is what makes sustainable action in complex and networked systems possible.

Renewable energies in concepts of sustainable use of energy

In view of the approaching climate catastrophe and the limited available resources of fossil fuels, renewable energies are often at the centre of the debate about sustainable future development. They do not use up exhaustible resources or pollute the atmosphere with extra emissions. Nevertheless, viewing sustainable use of energy solely in terms of focussing on renewable energies does not take the whole picture into account. The concept of "energy service" led to a long-term approach closely combining ecological, social and economic points of view. The question here is not how much energy man needs but which energy service he requires, the issue then being at what energy, economic, ecological and social cost this energy service can be provided. Energy service can thus provide a cosy room temperature in badly insulated rooms with obsolete heating systems with high oil consumption and heavy emission levels just as much as it can in well insulated buildings with sophisticated heating technology involving the integration of renewable energies.

From the point of view of vocational education and training for sustainable development, the following issues arise in the area of sustainable use of energy:

What part is played by sustainable use of energy in energy efficient renovation of old building stock?

Heating and hot water for private households account for approximately one third of primary energy used in Germany. The potential for savings and reductions in emissions are especially high in this area. Assessing and improving energy of building stock generally takes place on the basis of the so-called Energy Saving Ordinance, which is often debated alongside the Building Energy Passport. When an energy inventory takes place on this basis, both the building's physical ability to retain warmth and the heating technology producing warmth for heating and hot water are looked at. This inspection produces a series of "needs scenarios" relating to measures for the energy improvement of the building, such as insulation, upgrading heating systems or integrating alternative energies. Thus, renewable energies also get a look-in, but always within the context of a long-term view of the whole building as an energy system.

Which skills still need to be developed in a targeted way for sustainable use of energy?

At the level of the householder as a customer of a craft trades company, the "bottleneck" turns out to be in the awareness and confidence of the customer and in the skills of the specialist craft trade workers, rather than in the technical development of energy efficient systems.
Alongside consumer information, the decisive factor here is the development of structural and system competence in the craft trade companies.

Structural competence
In order to enable every customer contact with a craft trade worker to be actively exploited in terms of making energy saving suggestions or integrating renewable energies, the craft trade worker must learn to open his mouth; after all, he can only sell and install things as part of a customer order when he has provided advice beforehand. To this end, the structuring of customer interviews and customer orders in terms of the long-term way in which energy is treated need to be practised more intensively. Crafts and trades depend on customer orders for their survival and well documented and "successful" orders and satisfied customers are the best reference for the acquisition of further orders.

System competence
There needs to be a balance between production and retention of heat. A frequent customer problem is: what comes first, new insulation or upgrading the heating system? If the option of upgrading and improving the heating is chosen, any heat retention measures taken at a later point in time (e.g. insulation) will create a decrease in the supply temperature, thus bringing about an improvement in efficiency. In the case of a well-insulated building, an old heating system which has not been upgraded is initially particularly inefficient. However, a simple hydraulic and energy upgrade of the old system in an insulated building can already produce up to 20% additional energy saving without replacing expensive components ⁰⁴ .

Developing competence and energy efficiency are thus interrelated in a way which is often overlooked by politicians and scientists. To put it another way, anything which is not established in people's heads cannot be implemented to any great extent, even if the technology and the political will is available.

Figure: new training materials on regenerative energies from BIBB pilot projects

Which recognised occupations are best suited to activity in the area of renewable energies?
In Germany, for reasons of occupational policy, there is no recognised occupation oriented specifically towards renewable energies (unlike the occupation of "solar energy specialist", which exists in Austria for example). According to guidelines for the recognition of occupations (dating from 1974), some of the criteria which need to be observed are:

• sufficient general company need for the qualifications in question,
• training for self-dependent activity across the widest possible area,
• emphasis on long-term occupational activity,
• sufficient delineation from other recognised occupations.

At the present time, especially the second and fourth points seem to stand in the way of a separate recognised occupation in the area of renewable energies as far as regulatory policy and the competent specialist associations are concerned.
 
The training regulations for the following occupations contain explicit references for dealing with solar-thermic und photo-voltaic plants:

• facility mechanic for sanitary, heating and air conditioning technology (newly regulated occupation, previously sanitary and heating installation technician),
• electronic technician for the specialist area of buildings and energy technology (newly regulated occupation, previously electronic installation technician) and
• roofer.

Closer scrutiny of the training regulations reveals, however, that renewable energies only tend to figure marginally in these occupations. Upon undertaking a differentiated investigation, it transpires that the sanitary, heating and air conditioning technology occupation represents a good introduction to solar thermics from a specialist point of view, the same applying to the electronic technician occupation and photo-voltaic technology. Roofers only cover the area in a week-long inter-company course. Completing training in these three occupations forms a good formal basis for continuing training as a "solar energy specialist". The recognised occupation of mechatronics technician, on the other hand, provides an optimum specialist basis for entering further training occupations such as service technician for wind power plants.

What would be the advantages of a regulated occupation offering initial training in renewable energies?

Establishing stand-alone occupations in the field of regenerative energies, in the same way as the occupation of mechatronics technician in the area of regenerative energy technology, would certainly breathe new life into renewable energies. High-performing young people interested in the topic would no longer have to force themselves through training for a occupation they do not particularly like and where renewable energies mostly only feature at the edge of things. The full-time provision of courses in renewable energies at the technical schools ⁰⁵ would have a counterpart. Until now, the integration of renewable energies into existing occupational fields within initial vocational education and training has not generally led to a heating technician making his way onto the unfamiliar territory of the roof, nor has the roofer been down to the cellar to familiarise himself with domestic energy technology.

Solar thermics and photo-voltaic technology would be combined. Training could be carried out by master craftsman led craft trades companies which operated in the area of solar technology. Such an occupation would mean that the hard-core solar specialist companies, which at the moment provide hardly any training, could provide new jobs. At the Job and Training Fair in Gelsenkirchen ⁰⁶,  the examples of universities offering bachelor and masters courses in this field, or technical universities which provide the specialist subject of "regenerative energy technology" within their electrical engineering courses represent signs of a positive tendency which could also be exploited within initial vocational education and training within the dual system: nationwide interest amongst university applicants, a significant increase in the proportion of women studying, the graduate from this specialist discipline would have very little trouble in finding good jobs ...

Which further training courses provide particular qualification for dealing with thee area of energy on a long-term basis?

There is a wide range of further training provision from the environmental and training centres of the Chambers of Crafts and Trades and guilds associations. There are extensive further training courses leading to qualified "solar specialist" status as well as shorter, practice-related provision, such as the "specialist for environmentally compatible energy technology" offered by Münster Chamber of Crafts and Trades. In locations such as Husum and Bremerhaven, there are further training courses for service technician for wind power plants. The entry condition for virtually all further training courses is to have completed initial vocational education and training in appropriate occupations.
One extremely popular craft trades further training course is building energy advisor. More than 5000 craft trade workers have already taken courses to obtain this qualification. The main motivation for the high level of interest is the well-grounded expectation that good energy advice will probably generate  follow-up orders. Some fear, however ⁰⁷,  that the fact that these advisors come from their own branch-related company means any advice resulting is not strictly neutral, the painter recommending the insulation, the heating technician the new heating system etc. Many factors determine whether the integration of renewable energies is accorded its proper value in the advisory process: the importance attached to it in schooling, the interests of the customer and the craft trade worker, support conditions etc. A synopsis of the existing curricula and a nationwide "online community" on the topic of building energy advice could lead to a higher level of quality.