Establishing master of expert study program for industry in West-Balkan

Thor Henning Gulbrandsen, New Energy Performance (NEPAS), Norway

Keywords

renewable energy sources, competitiveness, local value chains, business opportunities, economy and financing, awareness, energy management

Abstract

Training and skill upgrading of key personnel in industry is an excellent way to raise the efficiency in processes and achieve more competitiveness in commercial business. Based on this fact a Master of Expert Program (MEE) is developed in West-Balkan and successfully been undertaken at universities and at a number of industrial organisations in this region.

1. The MEE program is based on six different modules focusing on topics, which are connected to the technical and economical strategy for the beneficiary companies preferably defined in a company policy and energy planning scheme.

This will give the candidates possibilities to influence the production lines, quality of the products, energy use, awareness and market understanding.

2. The program applies to people in technical positions and put technology and economy into a managerial framework.

3. Efficiency in industry is a continuously process and most people in industrial organisations have to be trained and prepared for a flexible production scheme and to adapt the process lines to new technologies and different market situations through a company planning scheme.

4. The program performance is partly theoretical and practical and to keep a high standard on the training courses, the program is linked to higher educational institutions, using skilled professors and experts from industry to deliver the lectures.

5. The MEE program has been running for five years in the West-Balkan region and more than 50 candidates has been educated and received their Certificate of Expertise after a written and oral exam. This allow the candidates to earn 7 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System)

6. Also many ordinary students found the MEE training courses complementary to their MSc or BSc study and apply to participate in some of the six modules as a part of their diploma curriculum.

7. The MEE study program has been reported as an efficient short term training program with an immediate impact to technical and economical issues in industry, by students, universities and the sponsors.