EXTENDING THE CURRICULUM OF VOCATIONAL TRAINING STUDENTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY. A TEACHING EXPERIENCE

This contribution presents the teaching experience carried out between Teachers of the University of Castilla-La Mancha and upper-level technical and Vocational Training (VT) students, with the aim of introducing and improving the knowledge of these students on forest biomass management, including biomass from agro-energetic crops and forest management. This experience took place during the last academic course with the financial support of the Scientific and Technological Campus of Energy and the Environment (CYTEMA) framework. This initiative pretends the integration of the capacity of public institutions and companies in establishing stable and efficient links between the public and private sectors, offering an overview of the energy chain and solutions, enabling integrated industrial promotion. In this particular case, the objective of the CYTEMA Project was to link Vocational Training and the University. In this scenario, the teaching experience presented here was intended to introduce VT students, from a theoretical and practical point of view, on different lines of research related to energy crops and use of forests and its destiny in the production of bioenergy fuels and electricity cogeneration. Concurrently, it was also proposed to assess the environmental impact caused by the actions both in energy crops as well as the exploitation of natural forests. Results of this experience are analysed from the perspective of the students and the VT teachers.