A successful hydrogen ramp-up requires more than infrastructure. It also depends on the people who design, operate, and continuously improve it. This is precisely where a key challenge arises: The demand for skills is growing faster than traditional training and continuing education structures have so far been able to meet on a comprehensive basis and in a way tailored to specific target groups. New job profiles, qualification requirements, and forms of knowledge transfer are needed – ranging from production, through transport and storage, to industrial applications, permitting practices, safety, and raising public awareness (Schur et al., 2026, p. 26; Stiftung Arbeit und Umwelt der IGBCE, 2025, pp. 12–14). The “H2HUB in Saxony-Anhalt” learning alliance operates at this intersection between technological development and skilled workforce training. It brings together scientific, pedagogical, and application-oriented expertise within a learning alliance and uses this to develop learning and knowledge transfer programs for various target groups: ranging from academic teaching formats and part-time further education to school-based, public, digital, and immersive educational formats. In this way, H2HUB supports skills development as an integral part of regional structural change in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Why Saxony-Anhalt plays a key role
The need for targeted and tailored training is particularly evident in regions where hydrogen, as an energy carrier and chemical building block, is already part of concrete industrial and infrastructure planning. Saxony-Anhalt and Central Germany are among these regions: The region boasts an established chemical and energy-intensive industry, refineries, existing energy infrastructure, research and demonstration projects, as well as a connection to the core hydrogen network (Stiftung Arbeit und Umwelt, 2025, pp. 9–12; Stiftung Arbeit und Umwelt, 2026, pp. 18–21). Precisely because specific applications already exist or are emerging here, the expansion of appropriate training formats to build expertise is particularly important.
The report on the strategic implementation of the state hydrogen strategy elaborates on this role: Saxony-Anhalt combines industrial demand, existing hydrogen infrastructure, renewable generation potential, and scientific as well as technological expertise. This means that the hydrogen ramp-up can take on a particularly tangible form here – provided that technological development, infrastructure expansion, and trainings are integrated at an early stage (r2b energy consulting, 2023, pp. 10–15).
Why hydrogen needs new skill sets
Building a hydrogen economy is therefore not only a technological and infrastructural manner but also an educational and training task. Recent studies show that the hydrogen ramp-up is exacerbating existing skilled labor shortages while simultaneously requiring new skill sets – ranging from specialized technical qualifications to planning, operations, safety, and permitting, as well as regulation, communication, and knowledge transfer. (Risius et al., 2025, pp. 11 ff; Kutz et al., 2025, pp. 20–37).
These needs arise along the entire value chain: in technical roles as well as in production planning, corporate organization, project coordination, permitting practices, safety assessment, communication, and knowledge transfer. Training programs must therefore impart hydrogen know-how in a practical, modular, and target-group-specific manner – for companies, universities, administrations, and other stakeholders in regional transformation (Kutz et al., 2025, p. 34 ff). The regional perspective confirms this picture. The Work and Environment Foundation demonstrates for Eastern and Central Germany that hydrogen strategies, networks, and project approaches are only implemented if training, job security, employee participation, and regional value creation are considered together at an early stage. (Stiftung Arbeit und Umwelt, 2025, pp. 5–6, 21 ff; Stiftung Arbeit und Umwelt,2026, pp. 6 ff).
This is where the H2HUB comes in: It enables the development of hydrogen expertise faster where it is needed – In universities, companies, administrations, and among the general public.
How the H2HUB puts knowledge and know-how into practice
As a learning alliance, the H2HUB in Saxony-Anhalt bridges the gap between research, practice, education, and the public. Hydrogen know-how is developed in laboratories, test sites, industrial projects, and scientific networks, but it does not automatically reach those who need it for specific decisions, professional development, or social participation. The H2HUB therefore translates this knowledge and know-how into various learning and transfer formats: further training programs for working professionals, academic modules, programs for schools and young talents, public dialogues, demonstrators, and digital and immersive learning environments.
Two programs already developed exemplify how the H2HUB integrates hydrogen expertise into different learning contexts. The inter-university master’s module “Hydrogen as an Energy Carrier of the Future” is aimed at master’s students and provides scientifically sound and application-oriented perspectives along the hydrogen value chain. In the second funding phase of the research project, the module will be divided into microcredentials to increase flexibility: The content can thus be used in the future as individual qualification modules and selected by master’s students.
A second example is the web-based training (WBT) on the Hydrogen Lab Bremerhaven, which makes the real-world research and testing infrastructure digitally accessible as an immersive 360° learning environment. A broadly accessible version is available for the general public. In addition, more detailed technical versions are offered for specific learning contexts and can be seamlessly integrated into existing knowledge-transfer programs, regardless of location or schedule.
The H2Hub’s offerings pursue various goals:
– Training skilled professionals: part-time further education formats, microcredentials, certificate courses, and hands-on courses for specialists and managers, technical staff, companies, and public institutions
– Engaging students and early-career researchers: joint modules, hybrid teaching formats, summer schools, and application-oriented research connections that bridge the gaps between academic studies, research, and the regional job market
– Attracting the next generation and strengthening STEM education: school-based programs, teacher training, experiments, and demonstrators that allow students to experience hydrogen technologies at an early age
– Engaging society: public dialogues, lecture series, and publicly accessible learning formats that provide a clear context for technical developments and facilitate discussion
– Creating digital learning environments: serious games, VR/AR applications, 360° virtual tours, and web-based training that illustrate complex technical processes
Get involved: current offerings and dates
- October 14, 2026 – January 27, 2027 | Lecture series “Update Energy”
Location: Magdeburg, Germany
Time: 3:15–5:00 p.m. each session
Format: Public event series during the winter semester
Language: German
More info: OVGU – Lecture Series on “Energy Update” - November 5, 2026 | 4th Networking Meeting of Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Location: Köthen
Format: Exchange and networking event
More info: Networking Meeting – H2HUB | Anhalt University of Applied Sciences - Summer Semester 2027 | Master’s Module “Hydrogen as the Energy Carrier of the Future”
Location: Hybrid
More info: OVGU – Master’s Module “Hydrogen as the Energy Carrier of the Future” Builds Bridges Between Universities in Saxony-Anhalt
In addition, H₂HUB will be present at other events in 2026, including the 1st East German Hydrogen Congress (August 26, 2026), Explore Science (September 24–26, 2026), and the Silbersalz Festival (October 31–November 1, 2026).
The members of the H2HUB Learning Alliance in Saxony-Anhalt are the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, the Fraunhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Systems IMWS, Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, Merseburg University of Applied Sciences, and Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg. The project is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
A contribution to the region’s future
In addition to infrastructure, the hydrogen ramp-up requires, above all, people who understand, apply, and further develop technologies. This is precisely where the H2HUB in Saxony-Anhalt comes in: It pools expertise, connects target groups, and translates scientific and practical hydrogen know-how into hands-on, digital, and interactive educational formats. In this way, the learning alliance supports a key prerequisite for the transformation in Saxony-Anhalt and Central Germany.
Sources
Schur, A. C., Mönnig, A., Ronsiek, L., Schneemann, C., Zenk, J., & Schroer, J. P. (2026). Arbeitskräftebedarf und Arbeitskräfteangebot entlang der Wertschöpfungskette „Wasserstoff“ – Szenario-v3.0: Abschlussbericht der zweiten Projektphase (Version 1.0). Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung. https://res.bibb.de/vet-repository_784356
r2b energy consulting GmbH. (2023). Gutachten: Strategische Umsetzung der Landeswasserstoffstrategie des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt. Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Energie, Klimaschutz und Umwelt des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt. https://lena.sachsen-anhalt.de/fileadmin/Bibliothek/Politik_und_Verwaltung/MWU/Energie/Erneuerbare_Energien/
Wasserstoff/Endbericht_Gutachten_Landeswasserstoffstrategie.pdf
Risius, P., Tiedemann, J., Küper, M., & Flake, R. (2025). Fachkräftemangel: Nadelöhr für den Wasserstoffhochlauf? Fachkräftesituation entlang der Wasserstoff-Wertschöpfungskette (IW-Report Nr. 8). Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft. https://www.iwkoeln.de/studien/paula-risius-jurek-tiedemann-malte-kueper-regina-flake-nadeloehr-fuer-den-wasserstoffhochlauf.html
Stiftung Arbeit und Umwelt der IGBCE. (2025). Der Hochlauf der Wasserstoffwirtschaft in Ostdeutschland braucht Fachkräfte. https://www.arbeit-umwelt.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/251002_AuU_Studie_Wasserstoff_screen_nichtbf.pdf
Stiftung Arbeit und Umwelt der IGBCE. (2026). Wasserstoffhochlauf regional gestalten: Handbuch für Industrie, gute Arbeit und Strukturpolitik. https://www.arbeit-umwelt.de/publikation/handbuch-wasserstoff/
Kutz, J., Zimmermann, F., Melcher, P., Sellner, F., & Stöhr, T. (2025). Wasserstoff als nachhaltiger Energieträger: Qualifikations- und Kompetenzanforderungen einer entstehenden Wasserstoffwirtschaft. Fraunhofer IAO. https://doi.org/10.24406/publica-4763