Summarization
Colleges for European Data Center Education (CEDCE) is a cooperation of educational institutions, businesses, and sector representatives from Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and Ireland. CEDCE aims to create a pan-European data center education program that provides excellence from vocational education to higher education for data centers. This project bridges the demands of business and educational resources and offers an international, interregional cooperation that focusses on bringing education on data centers to a higher level. This way, CEDCE prepares students for sustainable careers.
Industry
The data center industry is rapidly gaining ground in Europe and the world. Due to the ongoing process of digitalization, the demand for data centers is constantly increasing. This results in a high demand for employees in the industry (DDA annual report 2019, Nordic Data Center report 2018). Global data center staff requirements are forecast to grow globally for about 2.0 million full-time employee equivalents in 2019 to nearly 2.3 million in 2025. New staff will be needed across all geographical regions (Uptime Institute 2021). As the industry is quite young, the educational programs that provide these professionals are still in development. CEDCE focuses on strengthening the exchange of knowledge between the industry and education. This contributes to raising the quality of data center education. The industry distinguishes two career branches: data technique and facility engineering. Given the international nature of the industry, international standards for education are an asset for all actors involved. Therefore, educational institutions within CEDCE work together to create a pan-European data center education network that offers high-quality data center education.
Cooperation
Within CEDCE, educational institutions and businesses exchange knowledge to raise the quality of education to a higher level. As a result of this cooperation, regional business partners provide guest lectures, working visits and internships. In addition, they share their expertise about the field and their expectations of future employees. This way, data center education matches the demand from within the professional field. The following schools are partner within the CEDCE project: Alfa College, HELHa, Atlantic Technological University, ITCF Henri Maus, Mercantec, UCL, EKAMI, and FMS. The map below shows the geographical spread of the educational institutions. In addition, 32 European companies and organizations have expressed their support for the project, stating that they see CEDCE as an addition to the international collaboration in the field of data center education.
Background
The cooperation of the consortium started in 2019 and has been expanding ever since. Currently, CEDCE is finalizing a full application to receive a European grant that will kickstart this project. The partners agree on integrating curricula and facilitating mobility between teachers and students. In addition, the partners are committed to create an educational system in which students can combine different degrees. This way, they can start their studies at vocational education, and eventually finish their studies in higher education. In February, the European Commission decides whether CEDCE receives a grant. The partners of CEDCE also consider other possibilities to fund this project. These possibilities include regional grants, financial support from the data center industry, and other European grants.