Iida-Maria’s journey with FITech studies began in 2021 when she was looking for activities and flexible studies during her maternity leave. Her first encounter with FITech was through a one-credit course Jatkuvan oppimisen johtaminen. The flexibility of self-paced online studies sparked her interest in starting her studies at FITech.

So far, Iida-Maria has mostly completed courses focusing on hydrogen economy, including the courses Introduction to Hydrogen Economy, Hydrogen Production and Storage, Geopolitics of Hydrogen, and Hydrogen End-use and Infrastructure.

The courses that Iida-Maria has studied equal to a total of 20 credits and nearly the equivalent of a minor subject. Iida-Maria emphasises that the courses provided a strong foundation and comprehensive understanding of the industry by delving into intriguing topics such as hydrogen storage and transportation.

FITech H2Xpert badge recognises the gained expertise in hydrogen economy

Iida-Maria was among the first learners to earn the FITech H2Xpert badge. Launched in 2024, the badge serves as a recognition of the learner’s expertise in hydrogen economy. Adult learners can receive the badge after successfully completing three FITech courses in hydrogen economy. More details and the list of approved courses for the badge can be found on the FITech’s website.

Diverse background in industrial engineering and management

Iida-Maria works as a senior adviser and team lead at Sitowise, which is an expert corporation that offers design and consultancy services related to the built environment. Iida-Maria holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering and management from Tampere University of Technology. In her current role, she works in logistics consulting and expert tasks, leads the logistics and intelligent transportation team, and serves as a project manager. In addition to industrial engineering and management, Iida-Maria has studied programming, mathematics, statistics, and public economics at Tampere University.

Personal interest, work demands, and employer’s support as the motivators for studying

Iida-Maria’s employee Sitowise supports its employees in using work hours for self-development, enabling the enhancement of expertise and skills in line with work-related themes. FITech’s free university courses are one way to expand expertise. Iida-Maria has received praise from her employer for her studies and hopes that her accumulated expertise will also benefit client projects.

“What inspires me about the hydrogen courses is that it’s a topic that has started to come up at work during the past couple of years. At first, it was just a little bit, like something on the horizon, and now it’s becoming more and more prominent, appearing more frequently – in requests for proposals and generally.”

Iida-Maria became interested in FITech’s hydrogen economy studies when she noticed the continuous developments in the field and the parallel progress of education and industry. Wanting to comprehensively learn about the current subject, Iida-Maria sought to formalise her expertise through university studies and official course certificates. Therefore, she decided to study FITech’s hydrogen economy courses. Iida-Maria believes that the courses enable her to succeed in various bidding competitions in her work. Formal qualifications from the studies provide an advantage in the workplace, allowing her to further learn about familiar topics through work.

Warm recommendation for FITech studies

Iida-Maria warmly recommends FITech studies to other adult learners. The flexibility of FITech studies allow studying alongside work.

Continuous learning holds significant importance for Iida-Maria, as she has been involved in project work throughout her career. Iida-Maria says that learning and expanding expertise actively is meaningful to her. In a recent exciting work task, she conducted an analysis related to offshore wind power for the Ministry of the Environment. In the analysis, she could utilise her knowledge gained, for example, from FITech courses and acquire plenty of new insight into hydrogen economy.

Iida-Maria appreciates the flexibility and wide selection of FITech’s hydrogen economy studies, particularly the interesting and useful Geopolitics of Hydrogen course, which demanded sustained effort and rewarded her with a grade, unlike her other courses that were graded with pass or fail.

Tips for those interested in FITech studies

Iida-Maria advises others interested in FITech courses to browse through the course selection on the fitech.io website based on themes. Exploring the extensive course offerings using search terms without a clear idea of the course content can be challenging, but following themes makes it easier to organise the content. FITech’s course search filters, such as “topic,” “type of studies,” “responsible university,” and “language,” help to narrow down the selection based on individual needs.

Hydrogen economy studies for free until summer 2025

FITech’s hydrogen economy studies are available for free until the summer of 2025 with current funding. Therefore, now is a great time to explore FITech’s offering of hydrogen economy studies – so, see FITech’s hydrogen economy course selection here and apply soon!

Picture: Sitowise