GREEN Solar Academy’s Training of Trainers kicked off on Thursday, 28 October 2021 in Auckland Park, Johannesburg. Trainers from GREEN solar training academies all across Africa gathered to become familiar with new courses and modules, and training methods, and to welcome new trainers into the fold. And this was no small undertaking! GREEN had to co-ordinate the schedules of trainers from partner academies such as Logos in Mozambique, Young Africa in Namibia, Sunergy in Zimbabwe, Gomes Rocha Engenharia in Angola, ANH Technologies in Pretoria, Life Choices in Cape Town, Solarvest in Ballito, KZN, and Macht Energy in Ghana.
What makes a good solar training course? Besides relevant content, the second major factor is the mode of presentation. Our goal is to deliver excellent trainings, so we pay great attention not only to what’s on the slide but also how it is presented. To effectively train solar installers, GREEN Solar Academy must first effectively train its trainers! And this needs to happen on a regular basis
Once a year, trainers from GREEN Solar Academies all over Africa are invited to the Training of Trainers event, a 3-day workshop where we top up on skills, work on new training courses and content, and integrate new trainers into the existing GREEN trainer community.
Consistency is key in delivering a training curriculum. GREEN trainers receive the exact same materials they were trained on, and therefore they disseminate the same learning in each and every SuperSolarSchool course. The standardized format allows us to measure and compare the performance of each training group.
Trainers are primarily experienced solar installers who also enjoy sharing their knowledge of PV technology. At GREEN you will never encounter dry academic theory with no relevance to today’s marketplace; our lecturers are men and women who run their own successful businesses and offer valuable insights into the soft skills required alongside a sound foundation in solar design and installation.
“Training is more than just delivery of technical content; yes, you need to understand your subject matter, but understanding the human mind, and the different ways that people internalise that technical content, is vital, and these are the core skills we focus on during our annual GREEN Training of Trainers gatherings.” Vivian Bluemel, GREEN Content Director.
Regularly updating course content and training facilitators to properly transfer that information is vital to staying relevant in a rapidly-evolving modern world, and renewable energy in particular. We frequently review all our solar trainings and their implementation, as well as our trainers, in order to ensure a consistently high standard in all our academies.
The first day of the ToT also marked the return of GREEN’s exclusive in-person networking meetings for GREEN alumni. Day 1 ended off with a well-attended live panel discussion on the ins and outs of SSEG (Small Scale Embedded Generation) Application.