Transformative Education in Energy: Fostering Environmental and Societal Change

ongoing

"The EU-COLMEV project aims to modernize energy education with a strong focus on gender equality and social inclusiveness in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela. The project promotes academia-industry collaboration to address regional demands for skilled professionals in renewable energy and sustainable development, aligned with societal needs. EU-COLMEV is a collaborative effort between 10 universities (4 in Colombia, 2 in Mexico, 2 in Venezuela, 1 in Spain and 1 in Sweden), and a Swedish company specializing in digital education. EU partners bring extensive experience in CBHE projects, leveraging best practices to assist newcomers. The consortium includes 8 associated partners from the industry, promoting real-world applicability of educational initiatives, particularly in the renewable energy sector. The project emphasizes innovative teaching methodologies, such as flipped classrooms, remote laboratories and challenge-based learning, tailored to the needs of local contexts. Its core framework, the ""Explore Energy Digital Academy"" (EEDA), focuses on co-creation of materials to create and update university programs and courses, with a strong emphasis on sustainability and green energy topics. A peer-review Quality Improvement Process is implemented to ensure high standards for materials. The project targets short (capacity building for staff and development of curricula), medium (improved employability of graduates and increased gender and social inclusion in energy education) and long-term (international partnerships and a skilled workforce to address global energy challenges) impacts. As such, it contributes to the EU’s Green Deal overarching priority in Latin America. "