InnoEnergy, the European innovation engine for sustainable energy, teamed up with The GC Index® to help employers tap into fresh talent for industry projects.

During European Utility Week the team held a game-changing challenge for 120 Masters students, who had the opportunity to learn directly about real issues facing the energy sector and work on live business challenges.

The four businesses taking part offered students the chance to provide real solutions to the challenges they face:

  • XTN Group Holding – a hub for balancing renewables
  • E.ON – one of the leading gas and electricity suppliers
  • Engie – a global energy company and experts in three sectors: electricity, natural gas and energy services
  • energinet.dk – an independent public company that owns and develops electricity and gas grids in Denmark

The challenge forms part of an accredited game-changing programme, offering Masters students an exciting opportunity to engage directly with employers. Students worked on a live brief, ranging from tackling an urban mobility challenge to trading, storage and infrastructure related challenges.

Peter Markussen, Director at Energinet.dk says, “It was a fantastic way to get new input and perspectives to our challenge from a diverse group of individuals. The challenge itself went really well and the teams came up with very different perspectives and interesting insights, which we will take back to the business. But it was the radical process they went through to understand the challenge and come up with ideas that was really interesting – this has helped us question ourselves and look at things from a very different perspective.”

The challenge showed a true partnership between the businesses involved and the students taking part, offering genuine creative involvement. The four employers set students a ‘live’ project brief and benefited from the experience by getting a fresh and innovative outlook on their brand and the challenge itself.

Bjørn Bekkevold, Founder & CEO at XTN Group Holding, says, “The game-changing challenge worked perfectly. By changing the value chain from “Producer to Consumer” to “Consumer to Producer” students got to understand what XTN is very quickly. Structuring the challenge in this way meant they came up with some incredibly creative solutions as to how we can reach the consumers, which we are now in the process of exploring.”

 

The innovative approach InnoEnergy is taking to support Universities and students will play an important part in pioneering change in sustainable energy. It is all about giving students access to the best learning and real workplace issues – the approach InnoEnergy is taking will ensure a steady stream of highly-skilled professionals into the workplace, meeting the needs of business and boosting the sustainable energy industry.