Th article was released by RAI Automotive Industry NL
https://www.raivereniging.nl/en/news/green-skhy-no-hydrogen-transition-without-people
This week, the European project Green SKHy brought together participants from across Europe at the Automotive Campus in Helmond. Central to the event was one of the biggest bottlenecks in the hydrogen transition: the shortage of well-trained professionals. Without accelerating skills development, technological progress simply won’t take off.
Under the theme “Reskilling, Upskilling & New Skilling for the Hydrogen Sector,” educational institutions, companies, and governments engaged in dialogue on developing future-proof skills for the hydrogen economy.
Call to Action: Invest now in human capital for hydrogen
The hydrogen transition affects all sectors. In mobility, but also in industries such as steel production, sustainability requires new competencies. Workers must learn to work with hydrogen as a gas, but also with products produced using hydrogen – such as clean steel in the factories of the future.
The hydrogen transition offers enormous economic opportunities, but requires a national infrastructure for skills development. This calls for structural investments from both the government and the private sector, for example in practical facilities, learning materials, and teachers with up-to-date expertise.
Freek de Bruijn, hydrogen programme manager at RAI Automotive Industry NL, states: “Technology is developing rapidly, but the human component risks falling behind. We must act now. If the Netherlands wants to stay ahead in clean mobility, we must invest heavily in both the quality and quantity of labour.”
Hands-on education crucial for industrial application
During the event, the importance of practice-based education was also highlighted. Many companies indicate that they struggle to find personnel who are immediately deployable in hydrogen projects.
VDL Group, which gave a live demonstration of their hydrogen truck during the event, underlined this: “Developing technology is important, but we need people who can work with it. Practical education is essential and Green SKHy offers concrete solutions,” says Hans Bekkers, Director of Business Development at VDL Special Vehicles.
Highlights of the Green SKHy event
The Dutch approach to skills development, presented by ACE Mobility and RAI Automotive Industry NL
Keynote by Prof. Dr. PV Aravind (University of Groningen) on the role of European campuses
Demonstration of the Green SKHy mobile training lab
Practical insights from Technifutur and IZES
Live demonstration of VDL’s hydrogen truck
Guided tour at Summa Automotive on the Automotive Campus in the Brainport region
Call to action: help build the skills infrastructure of tomorrow
Green SKHy shows how European cooperation leads to concrete solutions for the skills shortage. But to scale this up in the Netherlands, action is needed.
RAI Automotive Industry NL calls on both the government and the education sector to make targeted efforts:
From the government, we expect a clear coordinating role and structural investments in a national infrastructure for skills development. This includes funding of practical labs, teacher development, and educational materials for hydrogen technology.
From educational institutions, we ask for the responsibility to continuously align their curricula with current industry needs. This requires a leading role in co-developing practice-based offerings with companies, and continued contribution to regional implementation, where valuable steps have already been taken—for example via practoraat and existing educational partnerships.
In addition, we invite companies to actively contribute to the development of the Dutch skills infrastructure for hydrogen. This can be done by:
Providing input for curriculum development
Offering practical assignments or learning placements
Actively participating in pilots within the Green SKHy project