Overview
The German federal government pursues the objective to bring one million electric vehicles onto German roads by 2020 and thereby to make transport more sustainable. Fostering the slow market uptake of electromobility in Germany requires a promptly in-service training and further education for academics. Thus, there is no market for electromobility yet, education in Germany as well as on international ground is facing a great challenge. Therefore, a holistic approach involving all core competences is necessary. Until now this approach is missing on the field of in-service training and further education. To create and develop the holistic approach for research efforts as well as interdisciplinary work is required.
According to surveys, 30,000 new jobs will be created in automotive, supply, and infrastructure industries, if Germany became the leading market and leading provider of electric vehicles by 2020. Sweeping changes will be necessary in academic education in order to meet the expected demand for specialists, particularly in research and development.
In front of this background the Mobil4e project aims at developing modular and comprehensive further training programmes on electromobility for universities and colleges and testing them at selected locations. The target groups include graduate professions and engineers.
In the course of the project, comprehensive, modular education and training programmes on electromobility topics are to be developed. Modules covering the subject areas “electromobility”, “battery”, “power electronics and e-motors”, “charging infrastructure”, and “mobility and business models” will be designed and labs will be set up for the corresponding practical tests. The content requirements will be defined jointly with partners from the business sector and from other associated projects. These programmes will be tested and evaluated at selected colleges and universities of the metropolitan region during the course of the project. In addition, results from experiments and technology installations will be integrated into the programmes to keep their contents constantly up to date.
Funding
Results
Germany’s goal to rapidly launch e-mobility nationwide requires modern and flexible training programmes to be offered to academic professionals in parallel to their job. Since there is no such e-mobility market yet, this poses a great challenge also to the educational system in Germany and abroad. To cover all aspects of e-mobility, a comprehensive approach is needed that considers all important competencies. Aspects from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, chemistry, computer science and economics should be considered, still lacking in today’s job-accompanying academic training programmes. The aim of the project partners was to develop modular and cross-university training and education programmes in the field of e-mobility. The project is part of the showcase “Our Horsepower Turns Electric. E-mobility in Lower Saxony“. With the aim to provide individual qualification programmes in case of a successful e-mobility market launch, the focus of MOBIL4e is on the development of novel training concepts, supported by virtual labs and Living Labs for experiential learning and addressed to academic professionals like engineers, technicians and executives. Practice-oriented and freely combinable interdisciplinary training and education programmes were developed exemplarily, dealing with important topics concerning e-mobility. Apart from Living Labs, models simulate configuration and interaction of individual components and complete systems in the field of e-mobility. The training programmes include workshops, complex simulation models as well as basic course units providing fundamental knowledge. Since the Living Labs can also be used for research purposes, interested participants have the possibility to experience recent research results as well as the newest technology and test equipment. The novel training and education programmes were tested and evaluated in cooperation with industrial partners. As a result, 14 evaluated qualification programmes were completed, now offered to academic professionals by universities participating in the project. Apart from training courses concerning electric vehicles, courses on pedelecs were developed. Methods and workshops can also be used in the field of academic education and research. In view of the increasing demand for academically qualified personnel in the e-mobility sector, the various training courses, workshops and software-based model environments permit the development of individual training concepts and also benefit research and classical academic education.
Findings of the study are published in detail by several final reports (German only) which are available online via the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB):
Leibniz Universität Hannover:
Technische Universität Clausthal (TUC):