- Symbio Hydrogen Academy: a unique training scheme for jobs in the hydrogen industry, based in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region
- Aimed at rapid upskilling, a key factor in the sector’s competitiveness
The Symbio Hydrogen Academy, a unique scheme
Symbio is proud to announce the launch of the Symbio Hydrogen Academy, the first French training initiative for jobs in the hydrogen industry. The Symbio Hydrogen Academy will provide specific hydrogen training courses in partnership with an array of schools, manufacturers, and stakeholders in the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region (Mines Paris Tech, ECAM, INERIS, LGM, Sherpa Engineering, Sector, the CARA competitiveness cluster and the Automobility and Energy trades and qualifications campuses).
With the backing of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region, the Academy should gain recognition as a training provider by the summer. Leveraging Symbio’s in-house skills, the initiative has been developed on the basis of training programmes provided to new graduates, interns or apprentices. It now targets a wider audience of students, teachers, engineers and technicians in the industry, with the objective of eventually training 300 people a year in the hydrogen trades.
Symbio’s initiative is grounded in the work done by France Hydrogène, whose White Paper on the subject is published today. "I would like to thank all the partners who have agreed to support us on this adventure contributing to the general interest for the industry’s benefit. Of course, we hope to welcome more in the future," explains Philippe Rosier, CEO of Symbio.
Enhancing hydrogen skills, a key factor in competitiveness
Skills are a key issue for the competitiveness of the company and the industry on the world stage. The skills required to develop a fuel cell are both numerous and new to the market, due to the young age of the sector. Key competitiveness issues include battery thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, and mechanical design, all applied to hydrogen.
This was underscored by the hydrogen strategy announced by the government last September, which considered skills development to be a priority to support the development of hydrogen uses nationwide.
Symbio, whose workforce of 50 people back in 2018 is 300 strong today and is expected to grow to 500 by 2025, witnesses this on a daily basis. "To succeed in our technological and industrial expansion, we not only need to attract and develop talent, but also provide our current and future employees with training specific to our business lines," explains Philippe Rosier. "But this Symbio initiative goes far beyond that, as it will contribute to the upskilling of the hydrogen mobility sector as a whole and therefore benefit our customers, suppliers and other partners too."