Skills and professions of the future: The jury prize awarded to the Genhyo project

The December 19, 2023

The Genhyo project led by the University of Toulouse was awarded the Jury Prize at the "Skills and Professions of the Future Awards" ceremony during the National Skills and Professions of the Future Day (CMA) that took place on Tuesday 19 December 2023 in Paris (Sorbonne University) in the presence of Sylvie Retailleau, Minister for Higher Education and Research, Roland Lescure, Minister Delegate for Industry, Carole Grandjean, Minister Delegate for Vocational Education and Training and Bruno Bonnell, an entrepreneur specialising in the digital and robotics industry. The winners of the Call for Expressions of Interest were also present. 

"We face a number of ecological, digital, energy, educational and societal challenges: France must be able to structure itself so that future talents are informed citizens able to rise to these challenges", said Sylvie Retailleau, Minister for Higher Education and Research.

A total of 7 prizes were awarded: 

• Prize for Impact to FARE
• Young Jury Prize to My apprenticeship+ in Europe
• Prize for Innovation to QuanTEdu-France
• Prize for Inspiration to Ficction Studios
• Industry Favourite Prize to C-DéCIDé
• Jury Prize to GENHYO
• Public Prize awarded to Campus Versailles

Genhyo, Generation Hydrogen Occitanie

The Genhyo, Generation Hydrogen Occitanie project aims to encourage the emergence of talent and accelerate the adaptation of training courses (from professional diplomas to PhDs) to the skills needs of the low-carbon hydrogen industry.

The Genhyo, Generation Hydrogen Occitanie project won the first call for expressions of interest in "Skills and Professions of the Future" as part of the France 2030 investment plan in July 2022. It is led by the University of Toulouse and developed in collaboration with the Occitanie academic region and all entities involved in the sector in the region, with the support of the Occitanie Region.

This is the 3^rd highest funded project nationally (€16.6m) behind the Euro App Mobility / Education & Digital Technology project (€17.1m) and the UGA/ Quantum Technologies project (€56.7m).

A project based on 4 main themes

• Theme 1: Creation of training modulesfor different audiences (secondary school pupils, students, jobseekers, employees, elected representatives and the general public).
• Theme 2: Training of 1,500 trainers over the 5 years.
• Theme 3: Promotion of professions in the low-carbon hydrogen industry, career guidance and professional integration.
• Theme 4: Creation of an observatory of tradesand forward planning in conjunction with the industry.

The role of Toulouse INP in the Genhyo project

The role of Toulouse INP is mainly geared towards themes 1 and 2 and concerns two key areas:

• The construction of a continuing education programmebased on the initial training courses provided by the Toulouse INP schools and on its strong research skills (the PACAERO/LITCHY projects between the LAPLACE, the IMFT, the CIRIMAT and the LGC, as well as projects carried out within the RHYO cluster - H₂ key challenge).
• The development of the Francazal teaching platform(550 m² of premises to be equipped as part of the H₂ technocampus).  The aim here is to deploy practical models at significant scales of power to illustrate the basic building blocks of hydrogen (fuel cells, electrolysers, hydrogen combustion and hydrogen storage) as well as system aspects (hybridisation with photovoltaic sources and electrochemical storage such as batteries and/or supercapacitors, and coupling with heat pumps). This work also aims to put in place a training path for the teaching platform. It is carried out in close partnership with Université Paul-Sabatier and in particular the consortium of IUTs (University Institutes of Technology).

The budget allocated to Toulouse INP to develop these actions is mainly dedicated to the purchase of equipment, the financing of continuing education and the recruitment of staff for the development of didactic models for the technocampus practical courses. Maëlie Heuls, an engineer at Toulouse INP-Ensiacet, was the first person recruited to the project and is currently working on the training path and the transfer of test benches used in research to training. Bruno Sareni is responsible for coordinating the actions of Toulouse INP in connection with this project and also leads a working group on practical work at consortium level.

26 partners

The development of low-carbon hydrogen technologies is a major challenge for the energy transition, at the heart of the Occitanie Region's Green Pact and established as a priority in the France 2030 investment plan.

Aware of the importance of supporting transitions and preparing young people for the professions of the future, 26 partners have joined forces to develop the project: ADRAR Formation, AVERE Occitanie, Communauté d'Agglomération de l'Albigeois, CMQE Aéronautique et Spatial, École Nationale d'Ingénieurs de Tarbes, EPF - École d'ingénieur-e-s, GIP FCIP, GRETA-CFA Pyrénées Orientales, High Level AFEST, INERIS, INSA Toulouse, Institut National Universitaire Champollion , ISAE-SUPAERO, Lycée des métiers bâtiments et automobile Sixte-Vignon (65), Lycée Gaston Monnerville (46), Lycée Jean Moulin (34), Lycée Jules Fil (11), Lycée La Découverte (12), Lycée Louis Rascol (81), Lycée Saint-Exupéry (31), Toulouse INP, UIMM Occitanie, Université de Montpellier, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès.

Find out more on the University of Toulouse website: The Genhyo project, Generation Hydrogen Occitanie