A strategic relationship boosting skills and talent essential for decarbonization and the global energy transition

ATLANTA, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- NIIT Limited (NIIT), a global talent development corporation and leading provider of managed training services, announced today it has been selected as a strategic partner of the EIT InnoEnergy Skills Institute.

EIT InnoEnergy is the innovation engine for sustainable energy supported by the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, a body of the European Union (EU). The company operates at the center of the energy transition and is the leading innovation engine in sustainable energy, bringing the technology and skills required to accelerate global decarbonization efforts. With access to top subject matter experts from stakeholders across academia, industry, and government, EIT InnoEnergy has deep know-how and experience in all aspects of energy transition innovation, business models, regulation, energy markets, and industrialization.

The launch of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute is an evolution of EIT InnoEnergy's highly successful European Battery Alliance (EBA) Academy, expanding to also include green hydrogen and solar photovoltaics (PV) value chains. Its agile, modular approach to training will deliver the latest trends and training with adaptable, customizable courses and programs that meet specific needs, regardless of location, size, or technology. Greater numbers benefitting from industry-leading training is a vital step in equipping the global workforce with the knowledge and expertise needed to decarbonize the energy economy.

NIIT has been chosen as a strategic partner of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, providing services including onboarding, learning journey creation, training of teaching staff, and ensuring local training nuances are catered for. NIIT and EIT InnoEnergy will work together on thought leadership initiatives as part of the strategic relationship. Being a top tier education provider, NIIT brings global market reach, a large and diverse customer base, and unparalleled operational excellence and capacity to achieve quality at scale along with its strong balance sheet, cash position and global credibility. The main goal of the partnership is to leverage NIIT's presence and capabilities as a global talent development leader to rapidly scale and create the highly skilled and certified human capital essential for rapid transition to Green Energy and become the thought leader and partner of choice for corporations and governments in Europe and globally.

Decarbonization is the biggest opportunity of the century, triggering an unprecedented race for talent and skills globally. The transition to net zero will require retraining up to 18 million workers around the world. For example, between 2015 and 2030, the amount of solar PV jobs is expected to quadruple. With 2023 marking the EU's Year of Skills, the launch coincides with wider governmental initiatives to address the growing concerns about future-proofing the workforce.

The InnoEnergy Skills Institute will benefit from NIIT's global reach and infrastructure, ensuring it can deploy services at pace and scale, accelerating training across Europe, Asia, and North America. NIIT will also drive the go-to-market program to take the offering to a large variety of industries and companies across the green energy value chain globally. NIIT will also create and manage a network of local training partners across several countries to further accelerate adoption.

Oana Penu, Director of the InnoEnergy Skills Institute said: "Industries central to the energy transition will see a dramatic uplift in the need for new skills and expertise to drive progress. In fact, in the battery workforce alone, more than 700 new job types will come into play as required skillsets highly diversify. So, it is not a surprise that 71% of CEOs already cite skills shortages as their most significant business challenge. We're dedicated to supporting green innovations of the future and ensuring there is a trained workforce to achieve climate goals. Our strategic learning services partnership with NIIT will leverage its leadership in global talent development to help make this a reality."

EIT InnoEnergy's leading role in key industrial alliances spanning energy, storage, green hydrogen, and PV mean it is perfectly placed to expedite the upskilling of workers across the energy industry. Through the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, businesses, universities, and training providers can benefit from courses supported by a range of sector experts, alliances, and partnerships.

Sailesh Lalla, Chief Business Officer at NIIT said: "Decarbonization is the next industrial revolution leading to an unprecedented demand for skilled clean tech professionals. We are launching a pivotal initiative in Green Energy Skills with this partnership. With EIT InnoEnergy's domain expertise and industry knowledge and NIIT's education services industry leadership, our goal is to ensure that the InnoEnergy Skills Institute is recognized as a pre-eminent and leading destination and thought leader for decarbonization and green skills across Europe, North America, and Asia. With the combined strengths of both companies, we aspire to create a world-leading solution to the burning need for upskilling and reskilling across industries to create a flexible workforce that is adaptable to changing requirements."

About EIT InnoEnergy

EIT InnoEnergy operates at the centre of the energy transition and is the leading innovation engine in sustainable energy, bringing the technology and skills required to accelerate the green deal, progress towards Europe's decarbonisation goal, and improve energy security.

Ranked as Europe's top impact investor in cleantech in 2022, named in 2023 as a top 10 active deeptech investor by Sifted, and recognised globally as the most active sustainable energy investor, EIT InnoEnergy backs innovations across a range of areas. These include energy storage, transport and mobility, renewables and sustainable buildings and cities – leveraging its trusted ecosystem of 1200+ partners and 29 shareholders.

The 180+ portfolio companies are on track to generate €72.8 billion in revenue and save 1.1G tons of CO2e annually by 2030. Collectively, these companies have raised €8 billion in investment to date.

EIT InnoEnergy is the driving force behind three strategic European initiatives which include the European Battery Alliance (EBA), the European Green Hydrogen Acceleration Centre (EGHAC) and the European Solar Photovoltaic Industry Alliance .

EIT InnoEnergy was established in 2010 and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), an independent EU body set up in 2008 to drive innovation and entrepreneurship across Europe. Since its inception, EIT InnoEnergy has screened more than 7,000 start-ups, launched more than 300 products to market and overseen its portfolio companies filing 290+ patents. Today, EIT InnoEnergy has a 200+ strong team with offices across Europe and in Boston, US. www.innoenergy.com

About NIIT

NIIT Limited is a leading global talent development corporation that builds skilled human capital and enables workforce talent worldwide. At NIIT's Corporate Learning Group, we're transforming the way the world learns, for the better. That's why the world's best-run learning functions across 30 countries trust us with their learning and talent. Since 1981, we have helped leading companies transform their learning ecosystems while increasing the business value of learning. Our comprehensive, high-impact managed learning solutions weave together the best of learning theory, technology, operations, and services to enable a thriving workforce.

To know more visit us at www.niit.com or write to us at businessimpact@niit.com. Follow us on twitter @NIITMTS.

Source: NIIT