The DEF’Hy project, presented at the Hyvolution trade fair in February 2023, consists of carrying out a diagnosis and analysis of the professional skills and training in the Hydrogen sector. Inès Taoufik, from the France Hydrogène expertise center, who is leading this project, explains the challenges and progress.
The DEF’Hy project is a government-backed operation under the France 2030 plan, with a budget of €57 billion over 5 years, which aims to develop and create new industrial and technological sectors. “The challenges of skills, professions, jobs and training are of major importance in ensuring the deployment of the decarbonized hydrogen sector and achieving the objectives of creating value and jobs in the regions,” explains Inès Taoufik. This is why DEF’Hy brings together complementary partners such as Adecco, Pôle emploi, EIT InnoEnergy, the CARIF-OREF network (training animation, resource and information centers/regional employment and training observatories), Afpa and France Hydrogène, which is piloting the whole thing.
Skills and professions
“We have identified three main areas of action. Our “lot A” aims to determine the skills needed and how they are adapted to the hydrogen sector. This involves precisely determining the skills needed to perform the jobs in the sector and identifying the skills bases common to jobs in the hydrogen sector. We have worked to propose a matrix that can serve as a reference and support training organizations in determining and building a suitable training offer and manufacturers in determining, among other things, their job description.
In a previous study (FH2 white paper), 84 professions were identified. We have selected 81 of them, which must reinvent themselves by relying on existing general training courses but by giving them a “hydrogen” coloring.
Indeed, hydrogen requires specific skills in terms of safety, high pressure, materials, new uses of mobility and the maritime environment for example.
Jobs in demand and bridges
“The second area of work for DEF’Hy is to determine and identify professions in tension and to recommend bridges between existing professions in industry, engineering and the hydrogen sector, by looking for similar types of professions in declining sectors that could be converted.
In fact, all professions are in tension in the hydrogen sector. Among the reasons we have identified, the intensity of hiring and the lack of manpower clearly stand out. At the current stage of the deployment of the sector, the profiles sought are in design, engineering, and community relations, with offers that have increased significantly in 2021 and 2022. The need for technicians and then operators will quickly grow in order to operate and maintain the facilities. We anticipate a very strong need for recruitment around 2028, 2030. This must therefore be prepared now.
Training and technical platform
“Our third axis is therefore to list the training offer and identify new needs. We have undertaken to list the associated training courses as well as the network of organizations that provide them. Objective: for them to be included in the RNCP (National Directory of Professional Certifications) eligible for funding and professionalization contracts. There are many organizations, and the training courses are changing and complex to aggregate. Some come from manufacturers who have organized their own training courses because there were none available on this emerging market. Work on coordinating training courses for the sector therefore seems essential, between initial, continuing, diploma and qualifying training, in order to mesh all the needs and levels necessary for the sector (first-level training, safety, maintenance, etc.). At the same time, we have listed around forty cross-disciplinary training courses in the gas industry, for example, which could be adapted to H2 specificities.
CThis work also allows us to see the “holes in the racket” so that the training offer can quickly be in line with the needs of the sector. Between manufacturers and training organizations, the desire to collaborate is there to grow our sector.
The hydrogen sector requires very high-pressure handling. To train technicians, we also need to develop technical platforms. These cost several hundred thousand euros; pooling the platforms appears to be the first step. It will also be possible to create digital technical platforms.
Finally, we will work on the attractiveness of the sector by producing different job videos with, for example, a hydrogen train design engineer, a maintenance technician, an operator and a project manager. Our decarbonized and renewable energy sector is attractive, but the industry suffers from a less positive image.
A monitoring and steering committee was set up as part of the project to support the work of the partners, formulate recommendations and ensure the link between the project’s actions and territorial approaches. With 24 entities represented, it brings together industrialists covering the value chain, research and education stakeholders, regions and territories, and competitiveness clusters. The results of DEF’Hy’s work and the presentation of the follow-up actions will be presented in September 2023.
