On Tuesday 14th November, BUILD UP hosted the second webinar of a 4 part webinar series aiming to present the BUS-GoCircular project’s outcomes to different target audiences. The webinar was co-organised by BUS-GoCircular partners Center for Energy Efficiency EnEffect and Circle Economy Foundation, entitled “Unlocking the potential of SMEs: A holistic framework to train SME-workforce in Circular Construction”. The purpose of the webinar was to show how SMEs can pioneer the creation of new professional roles and businesses necessary to propel circular construction forward, by using the outcomes of the BUS-GoCircular project.

The speakers presented the following:

• The framework for circular interventions in the construction value chain and the Fundamental Training pack developed for SMEs
• Silviya Pavlova, Founder of PropTech Bulgaria & CSEE PropTech, elaborated on the Importance and benefits from training in circularity for SMEs in construction

The session began with an introduction and overview of the EU funded BUS-GoCircular project from Sreeja Raghunathan, Built Environment Consultant at Circle Economy Foundation. The main goal of the project is to stimulate and support the need for a green energy skilled workforce, as well as to build hands-on capacity by developing a circular construction skills qualification framework and training materials on circularity that different actors from the value chain can use to upskill. Sreeja then introduced the Framework for circular interventions in the construction value chain. 

"The Circular Construction Skills Qualification framework is a task-based qualification framework for circular skills in construction, meaning a set of tasks and corresponding developed learning outcomes are mapped and connected to relevant professions throughout the construction value chain", she explained. In this way, "the framework offers a practical interpretation of the Key Elements of the Circular Economy, made applicable to the construction sector", she added.

Sreeja Raghunathan: “The framework offers a practical interpretation of the
Key Elements of the Circular Economy”

A tool for improving skills: the training packs

Ira Ivanova, Project Lead at EnEffect, presented the Fundamental Training pack SMEs. To enable SMEs to train their staff in a simple, attractive and quick way, eight training packs have been designed to be used as an effective tool for improving skills. She detailed that "the training packs respond to a critical gap in the lack of a holistic training framework and open-source circular construction training materials". The packs provide coverage of the basic knowledge and skills required by the circular construction workforce, where training is often limited to certain professional profiles in higher education, high-priced courses, specific single-topic courses or are simply, non-existent.

Ira Ivanova: “The training packs respond to a critical gap in the lack of a holistic training
framework and open-source circular construction training materials”

Before the breakout rooms started, Silviya Pavlova, Founder of PropTech Bulgaria & CSEE PropTech, elaborated on the importance and benefits of training in circularity for SMEs in construction. She mentioned four success stories of the Circular Tech business in the Built Environment.

Well-rounded, holistic PropTech solutions which solve Circularity issues are very rare overall in Europe. Having in mind that Europe is the most developed continent in PropTech, generating 51% of all global PropTechs, this means that such solutions are rare globally. Entrepreneurs creating such solutions are both professional in Construction, and digital technologies; having a very large cross-industry network of contacts; and thoughtfully and meticulously developing expertise in other related professional areas. "This is where the Circular Construction Skills Qualification framework comes into play as it gives the vantage points of all involved types of professionals in Construction to Circularity", she pointed out, "thus facilitating the holistic approach".

Silviya Pavlova: “This is where the Circular Construction Skills Qualification framework
comes into play as it gives the vantage points of all involved types of professionals in Construction to Circularity”

The session closed with the breakout rooms. Different topics were discussed during this session, and in these conversations, it became clear that there is a knowledge gap that sometimes is difficult to bridge. The training material presented during the webinar does have the potential to bridge this gap and would be of help to the participating SMEs.

To know more about other BUS- GoCircular’s outcomes, please register to the webinars to come.