Industry-University Collaboration: TwinTraining of Energy-, Mineral- and Water Resources in the MENA Region

The TwinTraining project is a BMBF-funded initiative aiming at increasing the employability of North African graduates via the cooperation of German and local industry and academia representatives. In this context, courses have been developed jointly with industry professionals. Modules have been implemented at Ibn Zohr University, Agadir, and the University Tunis El Manar, for example “Reservoir Modeling” will be performed in collaboration with Schlumberger. While industry partners gain access to better academic analytical facilities and employable young graduates, local academia is enabled to provide a broader spectrum of hands-on research. Finally, we aim to tie direct and long-term collaboration of industry and universities in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa).

Discussions with the local universities led to the determination of crude subjects adjusted to the specific needs and industries in place, e.g. mining geology in Agadir, Morocco, and reservoir geology in Tunis, Tunisia. Our partner companies are on the one hand consultants such as Geothermal Engineering GmbH dealing with solutions in hydrogeology and geothermics. ... mehrOn the other hand, Schlumberger and Dohmen, Herzog & Partner join providing modeling software for E&P and mining, ETAP, the Tunisian authority managing the overall hydrocarbon resources, and Managem, a global player in the mining sector.
The project is coordinated and managed by the German partners, whose actions include the acquisition of additional firms, initiation of a continuous improvement process, quality management and a final evaluation. The graduates’ application relevance will be improved by the direct involvement of industry partners in the courses tailored. In the subsequent two years of funding the optimization of teaching via the discourse of all stakeholders including companies and students implements a system of quality assurance. Students that excel during the project will write their Master thesis jointly with both a German and a local industry and academia partners.

By shared teaching of university lecturers and industry representatives knowledge transfer and a practical education are introduced at selected North African universities. Apart from the educational training which prepares students for regional as well as international requirements of the job market, the cooperation between academia and industry will stimulate an exchange that has been missing so far and can result in first shared research projects. To ensure the sustainability of the TwinTraining concept other industry partners shall be gathered throughout the project duration from 2017-2020. Hence, the concept of TwinTraining forms a role model of applied, international, English-speaking and academic education.