Training in Sustainable Energy Technologies

Romania is, after Poland, the second EU pre-accession country by number of inhabitants. In order to fall in line with the proposed EU objectives, Romania, like all the other pre-accession countries, shall have to increase the share of energy produced from renewable energy sources in the total energy production. The Leonardo da Vinci project entitled “VOCATIONES” (1999 – 2001) was focused on the organization of training courses in sustainable energy technologies in one of the economically underprivileged regions of Romania, Carao-Severin county, in south-western Romania. This region was selected due to its very good potential in renewable energy sources, the special interest of local authorities and people in promoting renewable energy, and the need of the local electricity company to improve the professional level of energy installers. Taking into account these elements, the project succeeded in combining in an innovator way the EU experience and the creative ideas of the Romanian partners. The paper is structured as follows: introduction, project outline, main project results, Sustainable Energy Technology (SET) courses based on the new training curricula, and concluding remarks. Special emphasis is laid on the project result dissemination, which included CD-ROM- and paper-based courses, as well as dedicated web pages.