11 Oct 21
- Is there one?
When you’re coming to the end of the year and are focusing on your goals, specifically your training goals, it is worth actually putting together a training plan. I have looked at putting this plan together for three levels. Entry level to energy management. Energy manager to energy expert. Energy expert for more advanced training.
Firstly I want to define these areas:
Entry Levels
Engineering experience may be required for an entry-level position (4 years), experience in energy engineering, building services, facilities, electrical or mechanical engineering.
The entry level could also be a graduate with experience.
Energy Engineer
An energy engineer evaluates and then implements energy projects designed to reduce energy use and costs. It is important that this individual has a good understanding of buildings and different aspects of facilities within buildings.
Energy Expert
An energy expert is an enhanced energy engineer but someone who has over 10 years experience, is connected to a governing body and has a professional engineering qualification. An expert will also have a wide spectrum of energy management in all aspects of energy. This spectrum ranges from generating, procuring, evaluation, technology variations, awareness, implementation, monitoring and verification.
There are no structured training plans that exist and there are no steps for engineers to become experts. I have been studying this now for over the two years, trying to work out what needs to be done. I have googled this plan to seek how to go from A to B and I am asked this daily from engineers or graduates. Unfortunately energy engineers just seem to find themselves not being able to focus on the correct training. I know as a Energy Expert that the training is very limited and although we are trained in other areas, I think we still need to focus on a structured approach for training that is just not there.
We also have the issue in that all governing bodies do not “scorecard” the energy industry, meaning that energy experts don’t get the full accredited position and no energy experts actually get accelerated into these positions.
The implications of not having a good structured energy training program means that we start to dilute the industry. When I look at the industry and the UK leaders regarding the Energy Engineers, I see individuals who have been in the industry for many years, even longer than me (yes even I feel a youngster!).
I have been audited by these experts and have even presented my software to them and I can assure you that, although sometimes frustrating, I know that these individuals really do deserve their position.
Although we need structure regarding the training, we also need the evidence and proof that the individuals have absorbed the training as well as being able to implement the knowledge. I think one thing to remember here is that when you do the training, you need to implement it very quickly or you are unable to recall the training effectively.
To resolve this issue, we need to develop a key training plan for engineers to take steps into becoming energy engineers and then finally into experts. We then need to maintain the training to grow and expand energy experts and keep them focused. Too many energy engineers today get distracted by technologies and different ideas. We need to keep the industry focused.
I am personally developing training and at present I have Gateway 1 and Gateway 2 which creates Energy Experts providing training to ensure they become ‘Sustainable Energy Experts’ . This training is, for me, the correct approach, taking experts into the realms of commercialism, which I believe is critical. I honestly believe that selling is a big part of Gateway 2 as experts need to become sales people. This approach needs to take on ‘Scorecards’ and it needs to take evidence and proof of knowledge.
The pay off to this would be strong energy engineers and even stronger and experienced energy experts within the industry. I would also like to think that there will untold benefits for the industry and for organisations wanting to engage with energy experts. Organisations could actually have a selection basis on the energy engineer based on their position within the industry. Long term, this could become a global position allowing energy experts to become globally accredited.
The world would profit from such a training plan, benefitting from global energy experts being able to deliver energy management, legislation and ISO Standards.
Before we get too carried away, the first step is a training plan, which I intend to work on in the coming year along with a “scorecard” documenting each stage of becoming an energy champion.
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