Hydropower is a reliable, clean, and cost-effective renewable energy source that can be used to provide electricity to remote areas. It's a significant source of energy for Sub-Saharan African countries where the demand for electricity is rapidly growing. Hydropower is also a specialized technology that requires a skilled workforce to design, build, and maintain the infrastructure.
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Hydropower is a reliable, clean, and cost-effective renewable energy source that can be used to provide electricity to remote areas. It's a significant source of energy for Sub-Saharan African countries where the demand for electricity is rapidly growing. Hydropower is also a specialized technology that requires a skilled workforce to design, build, and maintain the infrastructure.
The Vocational Education and Training Partnership for Hydropower (VET4Hydro) project addresses this context of social transformation and aims to support and enhance the education sector in hydropower. The consortium involves 6 institutions with complementary profiles and natures: 3 research and technology centers (LNEC, LEC, and LEM), 1 university (UiA),1 polytechnic institute (ISPS) and 1 public administration institute (ICV).
Intensive courses for instructors and teachers, assistance in designing laboratories, training in the use of laboratory equipment, and joint courses between European and African instructors are some of the planned actions within the project.
The objectives of VET4Hydro are: (i) to develop teaching skills and improve the teaching-learning process that occurs within the partners; and (ii) to enable teachers to have access to the latest developments in the field and the labor market needs, helping them adopt new content and teaching methodologies. As instructors gain access to the latest technological developments and labor market needs, it is expected that they will be motivated to enhance the content of their courses. This way, instructors can feel more prepared to carry out their training activities.
December 1, 2023: The project began on December 1, 2023 and will last until November 30, 2026.
December 12, 2023: The (online) project kick-off meeting with all partners took place on December 12, 2023
January 11, 2024 (Online): Project meeting with all partners to define the course content and discuss dissemination strategies.
March 3, 2024 (Online): Project meeting with all partners to review updates on submitted deliverables.
April 10, 2024 (Online): Project meeting with all partners to finalize the first version of the course program for October 2024.
May 24, 2024 (Online): Project meeting with all partners (except UiA) to finalize course content needs and prepare for the Cape Verde meeting.
June 24, 2024 (Praia City, Cape Verde): Project meeting with all partners.
June 24, 2024 (Santiago Island, Cape Verde): Field trip, including visits to six dams.
September 5, 2024 (Online): Project meeting with all partners to define the course program and logistics.
October 8, 2024 (Lisbon, Portugal): Project meeting bringing together all partners to review updates on deliverables and second-year activities.
October 7–25, 2024: Three-week general course on Hydraulic Schemes with 17 participants.
October 18, 2024: Field work at Pedrógão and Alqueva Dams
February 5, 2025 (Online): Project meeting with all partners to discuss the laboratory component.
VET4Hydro consortium has been established considering: (a) technical competence (b) strong coordination and manageability of partners; (c) well balanced consortium with an adequate inclusion of gender and stakeholders; (d) research, education and companies involvement; (e) focus on dissemination and future exploitation; (f) tracking record of previous collaboration, commitment, flexibility and adaptability.
VET4Hydro brings together 6 institutions from 4 countries with complementary backgrounds and nature: 3 research and technological centres (LNEC, LEC and LEM), 2 academic institutions (ISPS and UiA) and 1 public administration institute (ICV). Apart from UiA, all partners are VET providers as they regularly conduct training activities to their staff and mainly open to the society. Led by LNEC, VET4Hydro benefits from a multidisciplinary consortium, with a high focus on hydropower and vocational training.
Figure provides the geographical representation of the participating countries (in red). To project the potential outreach to the Portuguese speaking countries, these countries are represented in green. In fact, these counties can strongly beneficiate from the results of this project and from its corresponding deliverables (e.g. learning materials or online learning website) since these last will be provided not only in English, but also in Portuguese, which is an added value in a geographical context where the knowledge of a second European language is limited.
National Laboratory for Civil Engineering (LNEC)
LNEC is a public institution for scientific and technological research and development in the areas of civil engineering in Portugal. LNEC has comprehensive experience on hydropower and dams namely in what concerns to hydraulics, structures and geotechnical aspects. Moreover, LNEC has extensive work on experimental and numerical simulation. LNEC is responsible for dam safety and supervisor of HPP operation at National level. LNEC has a strong background on delivering training courses to a broad national and Portuguese speaking countries.
Instituto Superior Politécnico de Songo (ISPS)
The Higher Polytechnic Institute of Songo is located in Mozambique, specifically in the province of Tete in the district of Cahora Bassa where the Cahora Bassa dam is located, which is the largest in the country. ISPS is a national public institution, created by Decree 22/2008 of June 27, carrying out its activities (Teaching, Research and Extension) throughout the territory of the Republic of Mozambique.
ISPS, through its Engineering Division, teaches seven (7) undergraduate courses, all accredited by the National Quality Assessment Council, including: Degree in Electrical Engineering (LEE), Degree in Electrical Engineering (LEE), Degree in Electronic Engineering and of Telecommunications (LEET), Degree in Hydraulic Engineering (LEH), Degree in Civil Construction Engineering (LECC), Degree in Thermomechanical Engineering (LET) and Degree in Mechanical Construction Engineering (LECM).
Laboratório de Engenharia Civil de Cabo Verde (LEC)
LEC is the public institution whose mission is to undertake, coordinate and promote the scientific research vocational training and technological development necessary for the progress and good practice of civil engineering. Its action covers essentially the fields of public construction works, housing and urbanism, environment, and materials. Its activity is fundamentally aimed at the quality and safety of works, the protection and rehabilitation of the natural and built heritage, as well as the technological innovation of the sector in which it operates..
Laboratório de Engenharia de Moçambique (LEM)
LEM is a public institution for scientific and technological research and development in Mozambique for Civil Engineering and construction materials, the main purpose of LEM is to develop research and quality control of construction materials of public and private infrastructures, including buildings, roads, bridges and dams. The main areas refer to: construction materials, structures, geotechnics, roads, hydraulics, environment and chemistry. LEM is also the Entity of Quality and Control according to the Dam Safety Regulation.
Infraestruturas de Cabo Verde (ICV)
Infraestruturas de Cabo Verde, S.A (ICV, S.A.) is a company with exclusively public capital, headquartered in the city of Praia. In addition to ensuring good management of public works, enables the emergence of a favorable framework for the growth of the public-private partnership modality in the financing of major works in Cape Verde, which aims to reduce the effort used in the use of public resources in the concession and development of infrastructure works for the country.
The definition of the strategic guidelines and the establishment of the objectives of ICV, SA., in matters relating to public infrastructure, as well as the monitoring of its execution, are articulated between the Government members responsible for the areas of Infrastructures of Territorial Planning and Housing and finance and business promotion.
University of Agder (UiA)
UiA is a Norwegian public university in the region of Agder. UiA has 13.000 students and 1.400 faculty and staff members and offers 13 PhD specializations, 47 master’s programmes and 48 bachelor’s programmes, as well as shorter study programmes and lifelong learning courses. UiA has study programmes in Renewable Energy and Civil Engineering, that cover areas as hydropower, geotechnical and structural design. The university has successfully implemented a transversal (course and study programme level) and consolidated Quality Assurance System for Education (including objectives, roles responsibilities and tasks, processes and reports). UiA’s international engagement is global and comprehensive ranging from Horizon and Erasmus+ funded European projects to capacity-building initiatives in the Global South to innovative educational collaboration and student exchange.
The project is organized in 6 Work Packages, namely:
WP1 – Project management and coordination (lead: LNEC)
WP1 will ensure optimal coordination and management of VET4Hydro.
The specific objectives of WP1 include: i) overall project coordination and management; ii) efficient management of the scientific and technical activities; iii) timely communication with the EC; iv) establishing appropriate internal communication tools and procedures; and v) appropriately addressing all ethic issues in the consortium management, and in all the project activities.
WP2 –Teacher’s training (lead: LNEC)
Lead by LNEC, WP2 has the main objective of capacitating partners from Mozambique and Cape Verde with the background knowledge in the three main aspects of hydropower production namely Hydraulics, Geotechnics and Concrete Dams.
With a general broad course given by LNEC researchers to VET teachers and trainers from ISPS, LEM, LEC and ICV, this WP aims giving specific knowledge and right tools to produce better learning courses. After the identification of the specific needs and the production of learning materials, within this WP, trainers from Mozambique and Cape Verde will come Lisbon during 3 weeks to receive training on design (also possible online), construct and exploitation of hydropower plants. During this course, LNEC staff will contribute with their knowledge to cover the three main components: hydraulics, geotechnics, and concrete dams.
Taking into account the extensive laboratorial facilities of LNEC specially in the fields of hydraulics and geotechnics, dedicated sessions for this component will take place. This task aims at paving the way for the activities of WP3.
All course learning documents will be freely available in the project website and will be in Portuguese and English. All sessions of the courses (in Portuguese) will be recorded and freely available in the project website.
WP3 – Laboratory facilities, equipment and methods (lead: ISPS)
WP3 will be led by ISPS and will focus on the laboratorial component defined for ISPS.
The main objectives of this WP are: Design the outline of new laboratories for hydraulics and geotechnics; Define guidelines to construct the new laboratorial facilities; Define the equipment for these laboratories; Define the main experimental equipment and the experimental procedures; Conduct course on laboratorial facilities and equipment
WP4 – General Course on Hydropower Facilities (lead: ISPS)
WP4 aims at organizing a joint course on hydropower plants. The course will be given to students of hydraulic engineering from ISPS. This course will cover general aspects of design and exploitation of hydropower plants. The 3-month course will be conducted by staff from ISPS, LEM, ICV and LEC with the constant support of researchers from LNEC that will stay at Mozambique for at least 3 weeks. Teachers from the former five institutions will be supported during the teaching classes. Within this WP new materials will be produced based on the learning materials from WP2. Experimental facilities will be used to explain practical aspects.
WP5 – Quality Assurance (lead: UiA)
Quality assurance and monitoring will comprise an internal evaluation that has the objective of making a self-evaluation of the activities of WP2 to 4. This internal quality evaluation is the responsibility of LNEC and will include all partners on an evaluation of the learning process. It will consist in controlling, assessing and correcting the fulfilment of the milestones, as well as of the project objectives as a whole (preparation, execution and achievement of results).
The “quasi-external” evaluation will rely on the development of the quality assurance plan and will be ensured through the continuous submission of activity and results reports to the partner responsible for this WP (University of Agder).
The objectives are: i) Frequent assessment of the project through the analysis of reports to be provided by the project coordinator; ii) Analysis of the progress of activities and comparison with the planned schedule; iii) On-site visit of the course of activities and assessment of their execution in-loco.
WP6 – Dissemination and exploitation (lead: LNEC)
WP6 aims at disseminating the results and bring impact of this project at local, regional, national and throughout the Portuguese speaking countries and internationally. It intends to raise awareness and engage all stakeholders, promoting their participation, evaluation, and feedback on VET4Hydro but also, ensure the project's major findings reach all those interested, motivating for instance the adoption and implementation of the guidelines produced in the project.
The plan of involvement and dissemination of results will be carried out by various means and promotion channels such as the Website of the institutions covered in the two countries (Mozambique and Cape Verde), in the social media and in the dedicated website.
WP6 will be conducted to ensure maximum scaling up, exploitation and mainstreaming. It will include the promotion of an online forum and short courses in the hybrid regime (online and face-to-face) for the academic community and stakeholders in the area.
Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil
Av. do Brasil, 101
1700-066 LISBOA
PORTUGAL
João Nuno Fernandes
00351 218443772
The authors acknowledge the support of the European Union that funded the project VET4Hydro - Vocational Education and Training Partnership for Hydropower (Erasmus+ project, grant number 101128965).
Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
