New European Battery Academy to upskill 800,000 workers

A new academy that aims to retrain and upskill hundreds of thousands of workers and support the rapidly-growing battery sector has been launched in the EU.

The project was launched with a €10 million grant from the European Commission, created by the European Battery Alliance (EBA), and is to be managed by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

It is estimated that around 800,000 workers will need to be retrained or upskilled by 2025 if Europe is to achieve its aim of becoming a major player in sustainable battery technology.

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Launched in 2017, the EBA has since grown to include more than 700 companies and industry groups, been involved in over 100 major battery-related projects such as the more than 20 gigafactories planned or under construction across the bloc.

Diego Pavia, CEO of EIT InnoEnergy, said: "We are very excited to formally launch the European Battery Academy, which will see thousands of industrial workers trained.

"To meet the demands of the rapidly growing European battery value chain, this ’fit for purpose’ industry-led approach is needed in the education and training sector since the volume; 800.000 workers, need to be upskilled and reskilled by 2025."

Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič, who is in charge of the European Battery Alliance, added: "In 2017, the EU battery industry was hardly on the map. Today, Europe is a global battery hotspot, with 20 Gigafactories emerging across our Member States. By 2030, we should be manufacturing enough batteries each year to power some 11 million electric cars, moving full steam ahead towards strategic autonomy in this crucial sector.

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However, Šefčovič cautioned that maintaining the momentum was dependent on the sector’s ability to source critical raw materials and having a skilled workforce, and added: “It is also high time to adopt a new regulatory framework, ensuring that only the greenest, best performing and safest batteries make it onto the EU market.”

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