The 1st SpaceSUITE Dissemination Event: Skills Intelligence in the Estonian Downstream Space Sector
Milva Carbonaro (GISIG).
On 3 July 2024, as the SpaceSUITE project partner, Eurisy attended the 1st SpaceSUITE dissemination event entitled “Skills Intelligence in the Estonian Downstream Space Sector” in Tallinn, Estonia. SpaceSUITE is an Erasmus+ Blueprint project, aiming to ensure the development of advanced skills in space-related fields and the provision of education and training activities for Higher Education (HE) and Vocational Education and Training (VET). The upskilling and reskilling targets in particular professionals, entrepreneurs, graduates and students, which are central to the EU Space Programme.
The event introduced a comprehensive assessment of the existing skills and skills gaps in the space downstream sector, along with upcoming project activities. The participants heard from Tiiu Treier, Head of International Cooperation and funding Office at Enterprise Estonia, who introduced the Estonian space sector and the Estonian space strategy, setting the stage for the exchanges among local stakeholders. Maria Vittoria D’Inzeo, Policy Officer at DG DEFIS, European Commission, also presented the EU Space Policy and the role of skills, highlighting major goals of European Skills Agenda, and the close interlink between the latter and SpaceSUITE.
Tiiu Treier (International Cooperation and funding Office at Enterprise Estonia).
Consortium partners further presented their activities, highlighting their commitment to offering effective training opportunities for in-demand occupational profiles. They introduced a methodological framework to map space-related skills in education and professional demand within the downstream sector. Additionally, they unveiled the extented Body of Knowledge (BoK) and the first four personas, which will serve as the foundation for developing targeted training programs for space-related jobs in the downstream sector.
The panel “Assessing the Skills Mismatch in the Estonian Space Downstream Sector” highlighted the need for a comprehensive educational approach in EO, which should be inherently cross-disciplinary, as the current curricula often fail to equip graduates with the necessary multidisciplinary skills, which results in a skills mismatch. The discussion thus emphasised the importance of problem-oriented learning, integrated modules combining theory and hands-on experience, as well as closer collaboration between academia and industry with the aim to provide students with practical problem-solving skills using space data.
Prof. Rivo Uiboupin (TalTech), Karoli Kahn (KappaZeta), Danny Vandenbroucke (KU Leuven), Agu Leinfeld (Value Space) and Rosen Dimov (Phasegrowth).
The first SpaceSUITE Tallinn dissemination event therefore represented a fruitful opportunity to engage with and present the project’s activities to actors from the Estonian space sector, as well as to gather the feedback on the SpaceSUITE’s initial results, allowing Eurisy to expand its knowledge on skills development in the space downstream sector.
Read the full press release here.