21CC Education from Netherlands - Green Skills Award 2024 Finalist
Indo-Dutch training company 21CC Education is on a mission to make “learning fast, fun, gamified and to the point.”
With its “learn anytime, anywhere” motto, 21CC helps companies “drive efficiency while helping employees gain a deeper understanding of their job roles.”
“Our aim is to help your organisation hire a skilled workforce and also provide blue-collar workers an opportunity to build their ‘skills passport’,” says Managing Partner, Netherlands, Marloeke Werst.
The company – founded in 2019 and with offices in Mumbai, India and the Hague, the Netherlands – is among the ten finalists in the European Training Foundation’s Green Skills Award 2024.
Its project is a novel approach to increasing carbon awareness and reduce emissions in the logistics industry, via a game app, Carbon Masters.
The idea is to help firms transporting goods via road, rail, air, sea and water a way to better understand how they can reduce their carbon footprints, and give easy access to existing know-how on CO2 reduction strategies.
“We want to help small transport and logistic firms – significant contributors to carbon emissions – reduce their carbon footprints and prepare for mandatory CO2 reporting from 2025,” Marloeke says.
Many small logistics firms lack the expertise for reporting and reducing emissions, she adds. “Despite existing resources and innovation in the Netherlands and Europe, SME entrepreneurs often lack motivation to learn about emission reduction, and future employees from vocational and higher education are not equipped enough during their studies.”
Carbon Masters, which 21CC developed in association with Dutch firm Topsector Logistics, schools and companies, introduces users to core aspects of minimising emissions within an hour, with more detailed information available via e-learning modules.
Using the App can also inspire discussion and creative ideas on business cost-saving measures, long-term green sustainability and more efficient logistics.
“Since Carbon Masters was introduced to firms, regulators and colleges, we’ve had hundreds of downloads and very positive feedback,” Marloeke notes.
“Firms using the App have already found interesting solutions, such as switching transportation from road to water and in doing so, they reduced CO2 emissions, avoided traffic delays and tackled the problem of drivers’ shortages”
Carbons Masters comes with five modules (available in both Dutch and English) where detailed explanations on how CO2 is calculated and allocated to customers can be found. The modules detail how different transport planning can result in low emissions, and what data is necessary for mandatory reporting – due to be introduced in 2025.
An additional e-learning module – currently only available in Dutch – offers students a comprehensive case study to understand the new approach, using a switch from road to water for an importer as an example: something eminently possible in the Netherlands.
There is also a final module aimed at logistics entrepreneurs that provides insights in the “multimodal options established during [a] successful Joint Corridors Off Road project”, which 21CC says, “can easily be incorporated into company operations.”
Already in use in several vocational schools in the Netherlands, Carbon Masters includes a curriculum developed to help teachers and a host of multimedia materials to facilitate access.
Carbon Masters is part of a vision for bringing swift, accessible training to employees worldwide, 21CC Education co-founder and CEO, Sanjay Tiwari says:
“Employers around the world are united by one common need: they want better skilled employees. Today, it’s not money or even technology that is a constraint. The ability to find, employ and deploy people is still the biggest constraint to building and expanding a business.”