By Kai Forster, 13 March

The Transforming Energy Acceess – Learning Partnership (TEA-LP) would like to congratulate its inaugural cohort on completing the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) course, designed by TEA-LP and accredited by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA). This course was titled Integrated Energy Systems (IES) and it was developed in collaboration with four international content experts, ensuring participants received a premium, highly relevant learning experience.

IES was designed to accommodate the modern employee that is working full time but also aiming to develop their career to a greater extent. TEA-LP was aware that in addition to work responsibilities, many of the prospective course participants also had family responsibilities to tend to, limiting their time and flexibility. To accommodate these needs, TEA-LP designed a course that would allow participants to engage with the content in their own time when it best suited their schedule and at a time when they were feeling most focused and productive, which we believed could boost the efficiency of the learning journey. Assignments were due on a fortnightly basis, allowing participants to plan ahead and ensure that they could still meet the deadlines in time.

The course consisted of four modules, with a different content expert designing each module:

• Energy Security – Oghosa Erhahon (Nigeria)
• Energy Systems & Whole Systems Thinking – Dr Karim Choukri (Morocco)
• Sustainability – Dr Fenwicks Musonye (Kenya)
• Energy Efficiency – Fana Fili Nurhussien (Ethiopia)

Additionally, the development of the course was led by Mascha Moorlach, and the design of the course was done by Kai Forster.

Although content experts had some flexibility in designing their modules, the general structure remained consistent. Modules consisted of pre-recorded lessons in the form of a recorded PowerPoint with voiceovers. These recordings were supported by detailed sets of notes and supplementary materials to support what was taught by the content experts. To test the participants’ knowledge and to ensure they had engaged with the content, short written assignments and quizzes were due every 2 weeks, at the end of each module.

The first cohort of IES successfully completed the course in February 2024, and they stand to gain CPD credits issued by ECSA in addition to the wealth of knowledge, skills, and competencies they have gained through engaging with the course. One graduate participant claimed to have thoroughly enjoyed the course and believed that the ‘knowledge acquired will have a positive impact on my career development’. Another graduate participant said:

“I’d been looking for a course with exactly this content for quite some time and I was very happy to learn of this particular one and to be able to undertake it. I look forward to reviewing the material again and again – a real wealth of knowledge in there!”

TEA-LP would also like to wish the second cohort of IES all the best as they embarked on their 8-week learning journey on the 18^th of March 2024. This cohort consists of 20 participants from around the African and Indo-Pacific regions. They are set to complete the course on the 17^th of May, and we look forward to hearing all about their experience in the course.

For more information or to sign up for the next cohort, check out the webpage using this link.