Harnessing the Sun's vast energy can help in the sustainable development of nations, particularly those with transitional economies. There are plenty of educational programmes that build capacity in this exciting area. But do these programmes meet the needs of industry? Do they meet the expectations of the students? Furthermore, why would students enrol in these programmes. We therefore decided to conduct an extensive survey that aimed to understand why students would like to study solar energy. These surveys were completed by 718 students. Moreover, we asked 57 solar energy companies what essential graduate attributes were needed from these programmes. Details regarding our investigations can be found in our recently published paper .