Expeditie Waterstof (Hydrogen Expedition): learning in practice in the North-West region

GroenvermogenNL is working through a human capital agenda to ensure there are enough professionals with the right skills for green hydrogen. This is being achieved through a national network of regional learning communities. Seven regions are implementing a roadmap with ambitions and activities to support this transition.

The roadmap for the North-West region identified five major bottlenecks: fragmented education, curricula lagging behind technological developments, limited time and practical experience among teachers, a shortage of safe and affordable hands-on learning environments, and weak alignment between industry and education. Rather than stopping at this analysis, 11 teachers from 7 educational institutions decided to embark on an expedition together: designing, testing and immediately applying ideas in practice.

Learning in a growing hydrogen ecosystem

During the expedition, participants visited labs, pilot projects and companies, ranging from a hydrogen platform in the Eemshaven and the mobility lab of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (HvA) to the H2HUB in Twente and a biomass plant in Amsterdam. In this way, a hydrogen ecosystem is emerging in the North-West region in which educational institutions and companies work together to make the entire hydrogen value chain visible and bring it into the classroom.

Insights for future-proof education

Several clear lessons emerged from this journey:

• think from the perspective of the entire hydrogen value chain;
• start small, but make it real;
• make education more flexible to accommodate current projects;
• and above all, train students through hands-on making, testing and experience.

At the same time, it became clear that motivated teachers need sufficient space to develop. Without time and resources for innovation and development, hydrogen education remains vulnerable.  

H2LEARN and Expeditie Waterstof

Expeditie Waterstof forms the bridge between the regional roadmap and the H2LEARN project (2026–2030), which received funding in early 2026 through the GroenvermogenNL call Towards the future: learning communities as drivers of the green hydrogen economy.

H2LEARN is a national follow up programme in which innovative hydrogen learning pathways are developed through macro learning communities, regional ecosystems in which education, research and industry collaborate closely.

The full journey of the learning community, from challenges and practical examples to insights and future plans, can now be experienced through an interactive scrollytelling experience.

Explore Expeditie Waterstof at: expeditiewaterstof.nl