Interview with the Research Institute for Water and Waste Management (FiW)

iMOVE: What is the name and background of your organisation?

 Siepmann: The Research Institute for Water and Waste Management (FiW) was established in 1979 as an independent institute at the RWTH Aachen University. The close links with the university provide an optimal framework for the institute to find solutions for problems in water and waste management that require interdisciplinary approaches. The nearness to the research activities also permits to ensure the practical relevance of the curricula.

iMOVE: Which services in the field of vocational education and training do you offer?

Siepmann: Since its foundation, FiW has focussed on basic and advanced training in the environmental sector. In addition to organising and conducting trips of delegates and expert conferences, FiW offers demand-driven individual training measures in German, English and French for German and international specialists from our partners at home and abroad.

FiW has numerous contacts to plant operators, companies of the water sector, environment agencies and water boards; thus it can present the wide range of the German water sector’s activities on location for partners of training sessions from abroad.

In a recently started joint project, co-financed by the German Ministry of Education and Research, FiW offers a Curriculum covering subjects on the complete water cycle. The learning method is based on a blended learning concept, which combines multi-media learning units integrated in an internet platform like presentations, animations, videos, interactive exercises, webinars, etc. with face-to face and in-situ trainings at semi-technical pilot plants. This initiative is - in its comprehensive conception - unique in the German water sector.

iMOVE: What are your international business experiences?

Siepmann: We have been conducting projects dealing with technical cooperation abroad since the foundation of our institute. We consult with ministries of the environment and with water and wastewater authorities. The training, both basic and advanced, of environmental experts also belongs to our field of work.

Experiences from projects funded by international donors and governments in the following countries form our professional competence: Albania, Algeria, China, Indonesia, Iran, Yemen, Congo, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, Tunisia, Uganda.

© photos: Research Institute for Water and Waste Management at the RWTH Aachen (FiW)