Innovation News Network spoke to Larissa Wermers, Master’s Student in Renewable Energy at EIT InnoEnergy, about the challenges young people face when trying to establish a career in renewable energy, and provides advice for those getting into the sector.
As the world transitions to clean and renewable energy, more career opportunities are emerging. There is a significant number of workers required for the transition, with the World Economic Forum projecting that 18 million new jobs in the renewable sector will be created.
Because of this, it is important that young people can take advantage of the jobs available, forging a career in renewable energy. To ensure that this is possible, there needs to be more awareness of existing and emerging openings in the sector.
To find out more about starting a career in renewable energy, Jack Thomas, Managing Editor at Innovation News Network, spoke to Larissa Wermers, Master’s Student in Renewable Energy at EIT InnoEnergy.
Can you provide an overview of the Master’s Programme at EIT InnoEnergy? What has your experience been and what does it provide?
The Master’s Programme at EIT InnoEnergy is interesting because the topics of focus put you in a different school each year. Last year, I was in Barcelona at UPC, and this year I’m at KTH in Stockholm.
This allows you to connect with a lot of different students internationally and nationally and also forces you to change your mindset.
I’ve enjoyed the experience of the different classes, the culture shifts, and changes of mind, collaborating with students from all over the world. You don’t get this opportunity in every Master’s programme.
The programme is good at supporting you and exposing you to new topics. For my specific programme in renewable energy, we have a parallel track for innovation and entrepreneurship, allowing us to gain some understanding of the business side of things.
What barriers do you think young people face when trying to enter a career in renewable energy?
The biggest challenge is the speed of the transition to cleaner energy. A lot of people have a pessimistic outlook, but there are so many options and avenues to enter the industry.
Some of the challenges are about deciding what you want to do and how you think you can make an impact.
For me right now, as I’m looking towards my future, there are so many different avenues to a career in renewable energy. InnoEnergy is good at supporting students through their career centre.
How do you think we can raise awareness about career opportunities for young people? Do you think it’s something that needs to be taught earlier in education?
It would help to bring it in a bit earlier because, for this Master’s programme, for example, you need an engineering background, but there aren’t many Bachelor’s programmes that focus on renewable energy.
Introducing it earlier by having specific Bachelor’s programmes for renewable energy or general classes that discuss its potential would help raise awareness.
How early did you decide that a career in renewable energy is what you wanted to pursue?
I did my Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering, and then I wasn’t sure what career I wanted, but I’ve always been passionate about preventing climate change. From this, I decided that I could further my education in renewable energy.
At the moment, it is not at the forefront of people’s minds that renewable energy is a career option.
How important were internships for your development? Do you think that in the renewable energy sector, there needs to be more of that from companies to try and grow the next generation?
The internships were beneficial for me because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Doing internships means that you can find what job and sector is the right fit for you.
Since I was in three different internships, the culture can be very different, and you understand how to work with professional people earlier on, which is always important.
Have you decided which specific area you want to go into in the renewables sector?
I’m not exactly sure, but I’m learning more about other types of renewable energies that aren’t as widespread on the market.
For example, geothermal and hydropower are always available, but people don’t talk about them as much because solar and wind power are interesting. There is a lot of work in development there.
I want a career in a field that is new and innovative, but in terms of specifics, I am not certain about what I want to work in. There are so many options.
What advice would you give to someone who’s debating getting into a career in renewable energy?
If you want to be on the innovative side, explore startups because there are new ideas developing, and there are a lot of new discoveries happening all the time. Do your research and pay attention to what’s new in the field because there are always emerging opportunities.
Take the time to search through and figure out where your strengths are. As long as you’re working on something that personally interests you, it’ll be much more enjoyable.
