From Stump to Boiler, Bioenergy educational environment

The aim of the educational environment is to develop the professional skills needed by employees in the bioenergy production chain. The educational environment covers the whole value chain of bioenergy production “From Stump to Boiler”. The educational environment is run by REDU, the largest vocational education provider in Lapland. Students from various departments of the vocational school are operating the harvesters, the vehicles transporting of timber from the forest to the terminal, chippers and terminals, the combustion of the biomass and the spreading of ash for fertilising new forests. The student body is made of both youth and adult students with a large variation in skill levels and experience.

The major issue in bioenergy education has been in the training of energy production plant specialists. Students are ineligible to do apprenticeships at energy production facilities, due to strict security rules. This makes passing the knowledge and practical skills for students difficult. Apprenticeship education makes it difficult to send professionals to further education at the school, as this would incur costs for the employers and the employees who are learning new skills.

The education is implemented through short-term local teaching periods, which interact with working in a real-life working environment (district heating plant). The learning environment integrates students from the various sectors from gathering biomass, to logistics, to energy production.