The ESA Academy's Training and Learning Programme

The ESA Academy Programme is the overarching framework of activities provided by the ESA Education Office for university students from ESA Member States, Canada and Slovenia. The purpose of this programme is to complement and enrichthe students’ traditional university education through a suite of hands-on and training activities, enabling direct transfer of knowledge from agency, academicand industry professionals as well asaccess to world-classfacilities. The ESA Academy aims to improve students’ skills and to boost their motivation, enabling them to pursue careers and join opportunities within the Space sector and/or within other Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) subjectsand to bridge the gap between studies and professional life. The Training and Learning Programme is one of the two core pillars of the ESA Academy.This programme offers a portfolio of training sessions covering different areas of ESA expertise. Attendance at the training sessionsis by competitive application. Selected university students are sponsoredfor travel and accommodation and get documentsallowing them to claim ECTS credit to their Universities. More than 50 training sessions have been delivered since March 2016. Existing training sessions are periodically redelivered and new training sessions are under development to enrich the existing portfolio. This paper presents the ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Programme, gives an overview of its portfolio of training sessions, and provides some statistics and feedback from participants. Trainingsession development and related challenges as well as possible e-learning opportunitiesare also discussed.