International internships in the energy sector

The current global situation, a growing population and increasing loss of biodiversity, set pressures for a humanity to find more sustainable solutions in order to maintain the viability of the planet.

Higher education institutions are seen to have an important role in advancing information share and promoting the implementation of green transition. Sustainability courses offered alongside to main subject studies, produce skilled graduates who have wide scale view on their own fields. In education it is essential to have close cooperation and communication with stakeholders, particularly industry partners – future employers of the engineering students – to be able to develop timely content in degree studies.

The aim of the project is to give students experience in international business and working life by arranging summertime internships in Japan. The topics of the internship are related to the construction and energy sectors, and they are based on the needs collected from the faculties of the University of Oulu and the host company Shimizu Corporation.

In the background is a cooperation agreement between the University of Oulu and Shimizu Corporation, a Japanese company that is a world leader in smart and energy-efficient buildings and building information systems. Shimizu´s excellence in data exploitation and intelligent building automation creates a vast energy saving potential and offers many learning and collaboration opportunities also for universities.

The University of Oulu is a northern, international science university, producing new scientific knowledge and solutions to build a more sustainable, intelligent and humane world. The University of Oulu collaborates with partners to meet the changing demands of work life and to promote the well-being and competitiveness of society.

Main funder of the project is STEK.

Please, see the project sites also here.