The latest capacity building service of the UNU-GTP has been to offer customer-designed short courses in developing countries, prepared for the first time in 2010. This new service of the UNU-GTP has been triggered by an urgent need for training in countries planning fast-tracking of geothermal development, while it has also been an offspring of the regular training and Short Courses and the material prepared there. This has proven a good opportunity for some countries/institutions in need of a rapid capacity building process, beyond what UNU-GTP can service under its conventional operations, and which have themselves the strength or the support of external mechanisms to finance such events. The paying customer defines the outline of the Short Course, while UNU-GTP is a guarantee of the quality of the content. The first such courses have been held in 2010 for four different customers in 3 countries. The contents have varied from general geoscientific courses to geothermal drilling, or scaling and corrosion in geothermal installation.
The UNU-GTP held a Short Course on Geothermal Drilling in Indonesia 25 January – 19 February 2010 in cooperation with ISOR/Iceland GeoSurvey (the majority of the lecturers and supervisors of UNU-GTP come from ISOR). The course was financed by Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) and SenterNovem. The 16 participants who completed the course were professional engineers and geoscientists from Pertamina PGE and the Ministry of Mines.
The UNU-GTP and ISOR conducted a Short Course on Geothermal Scaling and Corrosion in Indonesia 19-23 April 2010. This course was financed by Pertamina PGE and the World Bank.
In Kenya, the UNU-GTP and ISOR have conducted two Short Courses: Short Course on Geoscientific exploration, May 17 - June 13, 2010 and an 11 week long Short Course that started in mid September. This first course was financed by the Geothermal Development Company in Kenya and the latter was financed by KenGen.
