Building up an academic workforce

What would really help with developing an expertise in the emerging renewable energy/Smart Grid and science fields would be to plan something like career packages for students to enter the field through. A lot of tertiary study is too fragmented with courses tackling specialised topics but little is done to integrate everything together. It would be fantastic for a post graduate student to complete the coursework components, and then be assisted through research and presenting the results in a paper at a conference. If we could enter into partnership arrangements with other universities, perhaps in the United States or else where, for students to complete a semester and have that count towards the coursework component of a post graduate degree that would make it all the more attractive. If some of the expenses for such study were covered in competitive scholarships you would get some of the brightest students taking up the offers and entering the field. I think you need to actively encourage students to take up the study – full time if possible – and make sure that they have a demanding and rewarding workload that will teach them the skills to be productive. I think it would help if they gained an international perspective from attending quality universities overseas. We could reciprocate by accepting students from partner universities overseas. It would cost a bit and it would need to be well structured with the scholarship funding being conditional on academic performance to some extent. A student would need to be completing the courses to an adequate level to remain in the scholarship. Some of these things are already being done.