04 December 2025

Edinburgh College hosts partners from Tanzania as part of skills partnership in renewable energy education

Edinburgh College recently welcomed partners from Tanzania for a week-long reciprocal visit, marking a major milestone in an international skills partnership funded through the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme, which aims to enhance renewable energy skills in Tanzania.

Representatives from Arusha Technical College (ATC), VETA Singida, and the Tanzania Renewable Energy Association (TAREA) visited the College to focus on strengthening employer engagement and building staff capacity within Tanzania’s rapidly growing renewable energy sector.

A transformative learning experience 

Over the week, the delegation took part in a programme that combined hands-on technical training, professional workshops and strategic discussions. Practical activities included virtual welding, CAD (Computer Aided Design) and rapid prototyping, an electric vehicle simulator demonstration, and a dedicated “train-the-trainer” session on solar and micro-renewables, giving delegates from Tanzania an insight into teaching methods and technologies used at the College.

Alongside this, the group reviewed internal verification processes, placement monitoring systems and self-evaluation tools, exploring how the College uses student feedback and employer input to inform curriculum development. Meetings with the Energy Skills Partnership (ESP) and Edinburgh Napier University provided further examples of how Scottish FE and HE institutions collaborate with industry to support skills pipelines and apprenticeships. Workshops also covered entrepreneurship, soft skills, gender equity, VLE use and resource-sharing practices, broadening the professional development focus.

For the Tanzanian partners, the experience provided practical insight into Scotland’s integrated approach to skills development, linking technical instruction with industry engagement, quality assurance and community-focused entrepreneurship and modernising renewable energy teaching to meet the needs of Tanzania’s evolving green-skills sector.

Celebrating the completion of a year-long collaboration 

Following this reciprocal visit, the College and its Tanzanian partners have successfully concluded a year of joint work under the International Skills Partnership.

 

Key achievements include:

• Tailored Employer Engagement Guidelines and Best Practices Toolkits for Tanzania’s renewable energy sector
• Strengthened industrial placement and monitoring systems
• Updated quality assurance and self-evaluation frameworks
• A comprehensive staff upskilling programme

A key feature of this phase was the active participation of TAREA, whose representative joined the delegation as a senior sector voice. TAREA’s involvement ensured the project outcomes not only strengthened training institutions but also aligned with national renewable energy strategies, industry expectations and previous sector investments, while supporting apprenticeship reform, STEM outreach, green entrepreneurship and wider dissemination across Tanzania’s renewable-energy ecosystem.

This partnership is supported by funding from the British Council’s Going Global Partnerships programme. Going Global Partnerships supports universities, colleges and wider education stakeholders around the world to work together towards stronger, equitable, inclusive, more internationally connected higher education, science and TVET.