Vocational Advancement Service of the Construction Industry Berlin Brandenburg (BFW BB) is now partner of the EcoSUN Green Village project
BFW BB is an institution that deals with education of workforce for the building industry in Germany based on the German vocational training model known as Dual Education. This means a combined 50/50 theoretical education and practical work in a specialized company over a period of 2 to 3 years depending on the profession.
This results in highly specialized workers able to deal with all tasks in their profession - and such kind of education and training for a group of people in the project region is therefore considered an important asset of the EcoSUN project in order to transfer German tech-nology successfully and to ensure that the installed systems remain functional beyond the end of the project period.
From the very beginning of the EcoSUN activities a close cooperation of the project team with voca-tional training institutions in South Africa was therefore targeted. The intention was to establish an German-South African joint network of relevant institutions including partners from government, academia, industry and colleges of vocational training. The EcoSUN team was now successful in get-ting the funding German ministry convinced that a direct partnership of BFW BB could extremely support the EcoSUN project activities, especially the learning-by-doing approach of the companies, as well as the educational efforts to create a kind of technicians able to do maintenance for Green vil-lages starting with the demonstration unit in Ekuphumleni. They shall provide, as special craftsmen, the technical services for the EcoSUN settlements and guarantee the long term functionality of the plants. Furthermore they are multipliers as well.
In this context a strong network was established. This started with the negotiations of the EcoSUN team during the 2018 Green Village summer school held in Potsdam and Berlin, when an Letter of Intent (LoI) was signed by Prof Mbanga of Nelson Mandela University (NMU), Chair of Education in Human Settlements, and the managing director of BFW BB, Mr Buckram, that emphasized their in-tention to work together.
Meeting at the Head Quarters of BFW BB in Potsdam (Centre Prof Mbanga, 2nd right, Mr Buckram)
Since then an active cooperation of Nelson Mandela University (NMU), University of Potsdam and Technical University of Berlin took place, and was continued when in July 2019 Prof Mbanga was back to Germany for appointments in Potsdam and Berlin. It was focused on the development of a profile of requirements for South African craftspeople as well as on the preparation of a training con-cept adapted to the needs of the EcoSUN Green Village.
The current status of the project was discussed intensively by Prof Mbanga (NMU), Dr Soyez (Univer-sity of Potsdam), Mr Buckram, Ms Petrie and Ms Bischoff (all BFW BB) in Potsdam. Additionally, po-tential follow-up projects have already been envisaged in order to promote further cooperation.
The next day, an appointment took place at the Technical University Berlin with Prof Meyser (TU Berlin) and Ms Li, a master student. The time was used for an defining the way forward and to clarify important issues that are related to the project: to find partners in RSA administration especially at the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) as well as the Further education and train-ing (FET) Colleges that deal with vocational training in RSA. As one next step a clear strategy will be developed in which way local people could become part of the learning-by-doing activities that are planned by the German companies to educate people to understand the characteristics of green technologies. Moreover, a draft curriculum for EcoSUN technicians able to maintain green villages will be prepared and shared with the RSA partners. All parties look confident and motivated to their activities and joint work in the project.
Meeting at Technical University of Berlin with Prof Meyser and Ms Li (3rd and 1st left, resp.)
Published at: March, 2nd 2020
