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List of projects (89)

The objective of this project is to pave the ground for the significant improvement of the skills of the workforce in the Building sector in Cyprus making the enterprises and their employees, specifically those in relevant occupations, capable of achieving the EU 2020 targets. In order to achieve this, the national status quo will be thoroughly analysed, the barriers and gaps will be identified and a Roadmap will be developed. The Consortium formed for the project, has the widest possible participation of the major actors in Cyprus, whereas other actors are expected to contribute and finally endorse the project’s outputs. The project is expected to lead towards the upgrading of the skills of the workforce in the Building sector but also of workforce found in sectors relating to the energy efficiency and the utilisation of Renewable Energy Sources in buildings. This will contribute significantly towards achieving Cyprus’ energy targets by 2020 and at the same time complying with the EU directives on Energy Performance of Buildings and the EU2020 targets.

The project BUILD UP Skills Czech Republic aims to provide training to on-site workers to successfully meet the requirements of the EPBD II, which puts high requirements for energy efficiency in buildings to the EU Member States. The BuildUpCz project has three basic stages:

The first stage is the analysis of the national status quo in the Czech Republic. The analysis covers all on-site professions involved in the construction industry, and covers all areas of energy efficiency and renewable technologies and systems appropriate for the country. It identifies barriers and differences between the current situation and the needs for 2020.

The next stage is focused on the design of the Czech Republic’s own National Roadmap. It will specifically identify areas and types of on-site workers who need more education, as well as design the system of education, design of any accreditation mechanism to ensure teachers and a proposal for funding.

The third stage involves the communication and promotional activities that will lead to widespread discussion and adoption of the proposed plan by all involved stakeholders. These activities will be conducted continuously during the analysis and solution of the National Roadmap draft, and include not only private construction sector employers and central government and public administration, but also workers in the construction sector and other trade unions, educational institutions, etc.

Build Up Skills Denmark Pillar 1 is the Danish contribution to an EU project currently carried out across the 27 EU countries and Norway, Switzerland, and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The project is part of the Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) program, which supports energy optimisation and the use of renewable energy. The EU finances 90% of the Build Up Skills project. The project period was 18 months from November 15, 2011, to May 14, 2013.

The overall goal of the project was to map current education programme offers that target craftsmen in the construction sector and subsequently to develop a national roadmap for skills upgrading so that this target group can contribute to meeting the Danish 2020 goals for energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy.

A consortium of the Danish Energy Agency (coordinator), Danish Technological Institute (project manager), the Danish Building Research Institute, and KommunikationsKompagniet A/S carried out the Danish Build Up Skills Pillar 1 project.

The project was supported by a steering committee composed of representatives from Dansk Byggeri (The Danish Construction Association), Dansk Industri (Confederation of Danish Industry), BAT Kartellet (a professional syndicate for seven members of the Danish Confederation of Trade Unions), Byggeriets Uddannelser (the Danish education and training board of building and construction), and Dansk Håndværk & Industri (DS Trade and Industry). In addition, a stakeholder group of relevant stakeholders in the construction and education sectors provided sparring and consultancy for the consortium.

The end results are a Status Quo Report and a National Roadmap report. The Status Quo Report givea a status of the size of the heated building stock and its energy consumption for heating, It also provides an overview of the Danish goals and obligations for energy and CO2 savings and an overview of the current upper secondary vocational education programs and adult continuing education and training related to energy efficiency.

The National Roadmap presents a plan to overcome barriers and competence gaps in the construction sector in order to be able to contribute to the both Danish and the EU goals for reducing the energy consumption and for increasing the use of renewable energy the building stock. The final report presents nine recommendations and 26 recommend initiatives.

The roadmap was prepared through close collaboration between the consortium and the steering committee, and with on-going contributions from the stakeholder group. The contents of the roadmap are thus rooted in the Danish construction industry, which is a precondition for subsequent implementation.

For stakeholders who would like to apply for funding through Build Up Skills Pillar 2, the roadmap must form the platform for their application. I.e. the initiatives that they would like to get funded should support the overall recommendations in the roadmap.

Both the Status Quo and the National Roadmap reports and further information can be downloaded below. Furthermore, a Danish website can be found at www.buildupskills.dk

The Estonian BUILDEST project (Development of the Estonian Continuing Education and Training Roadmap and Action Plan for the Building Sector to 2020) was part of the Build Up Skills project implemented by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness & Innovation (EACI) and funded by Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme. The objective of the project was to embed training on efficient and sustainable energy solutions for buildings in the mainstream curricula and practice of building professionals in Estonia, taking into account the expected contribution of the building sector to the national 2020 targets and the requirements for “nearly zero-energy buildings”. The ultimate goal of the Roadmap and Action Plan on education was to encourage relevant national stakeholders to provide trainings, modify and innovate the existing qualification system requirements so as to improve considerably the level of continuing education in the building sector, taking into account common European trends. The project brought together all relevant national stakeholders in the building sector 1) to provide optimal high-level resources (experience, skills) for the analysis of further education, training and qualification system and labour market of the Estonian building sector and 2) for the development of the Estonian roadmap and action plan addressing the outcomes of the conducted analysis and providing sustainable solutions for the building sector in terms of energy efficiency gains and/or renewable energies uptake by 2020.

There were two (2) major outputs from the BUILDEST project:

A comprehensive analysis of the status quo of the Estonian building sector on different levels: clarification and description of training and qualification needs, development perspectives in the building sector and the overall legal, political, educational environment with respect to providing energy-efficiency aware and capable workforce.

Estonian Continuing Education and Training Roadmap and Action Plan for the Building Sector to 2020 taking into account the results and conclusions of the status quo analysis and focusing on energy efficiency knowledge and skills. The Roadmap will contribute to further development of the national continuing education and training programmes and qualification system of the building sector workers supported by relevant stakeholders and market actors nationwide.

Build Up Skills Finland is an Intelligent Energy Europe funded project aiming at improved energy efficiency competence of construction workers in different phases of the building process. Reliable information, skilled workforce and competent implementation will ensure that energy efficiency in the building will realize in practice. Decrease in energy consumption in buildings is in key role in the fulfillment of European and national energy efficiency targets.

The first step of the project is to compile a status quo analysis of current level of competence and skills and the role of energy issues in vocational education and in continuing and additional training. A series of workshops the project collects practical experiences and the target groups own insights of the construction sites practices and needs for development throughout Finland. In a later stage of the project the stakeholders are invited to contribute to the national roadmap which will compile training needs and objectives, a plan of training contents and a proposal how to organize the training.

At this stage a similar project is being implemented in altogether 21 European countries. Build Up Skills Finland exchanges experiences during the production process of the National Status Quo Report with projects from Austria and Slovenia.

The Build Up Skills Finland project runs until the end of April 2013.

France has already carried out consistent work to determine training needs of building sector’s workforce at national but also regional and local levels. Different initiatives have also already been undertaken to train these workers. However, real barriers seem to exist to effectively reach all workers and craftsmen of the building sector and thus achieve energy efficiency (EE) targets set at the European and national levels for that sector. The aim of the “Build Up Skills France” action is to remove these barriers by defining a concrete roadmap for massive skills acquisition of building sector’s workforce until 2020. The project aims also to undertake a quantitative and qualitative assessment, shared by all stakeholders of current training demand and supply existing in France for the acquisition of the new skills required in the building sector for all “on-site” workers, as well as a review of the initiatives or experiments already carried out or under way at different levels (national, regional, local), to elaborate an action plan (a “roadmap”) in consultation with all relevant stakeholders (employers’associations, trade unions, vocational training centers, relevant authorities, etc.) in order to meet training needs and requirements but also remove the identified obstacles and to have this roadmap approved by all relevant stakeholders and, in particular, in link with the main authorities of the sector and the 27 French regions. This includes reflection to identify ways for financing its further implementation in complement of the existing system.

The aim of QUALERGY2020 is to provide necessary information on the actual workforce needs considering the 20-20-20-goals (numbers and specific qualifications) in the Building Sector in Germany. Thereby the focus is laid on the ‘on-site/blue collar workers’ (construction workers, craftsmen and installers). Therefore, the Status-Quo-Analysis will deliver in a first step quantitative and qualitative information of the existing workforce and the qualification bundles in 2020 (also quantitative and qualitative). On this basis a gap-analysis will show diferences between the existing and the needed workforce and qualification programs. This information is used for specific recommendations on how to build up the needed workforce, which are discussed with all relevant stakeholders. The discussion process shall result in a national qualification roadmap for Germany with suggestions for new or modified qualification courses and sufficient workforce supply.

Since well qualified construction workers are one of the key factors for achieving significant contribution towards the 2020 energy efficiency objectives, in both the national and EU levels, the Project "BUILD UP Skills - Greece" (BUS-GR) – focusing on and addressing the specific Greek needs – aims to facilitate the Building sector Workforce Training and Qualification by agreeing on and elaborating a National Qualification Roadmap.

The specific objectives of BUS-GR are to:

- form a national platform on Energy Efficiency and RES related training programs and qualification schemes for the building construction sector workers;

- identify and quantify the need for qualified workforce in Greece in order to describe the current status quo;

- design and set up a national training and qualification strategy (the Roadmap) up to 2020 for the achievement of national sustainable energy goals;

- ensure the roadmap adoption by all relevant stakeholders in Greece via the appropriate endorsement activities.

The project works towards the elaboration & endorsement of a national qualification roadmap to enhance the achievement of the 2020 energy targets through up-to-date education & training schemes for the building workforce. It will be supported by active stakeholder engagement on the measures proposed in the roadmap, organised along two thematic pillars: 1/ Building industry utilizing technologies related to energy efficiency (EE) & renewable energy sources (RES) employing the building workforce (demand) 2/ Education schemes for the building industry workforce including continuing vocational training (offer). To reach the largest range of target groups, the scope of the analysis and roadmap covers the following segments of education & training: 1/Continuing vocational training for workers including on-the-job trainings 2/Initial education as part of the formal school system. The project will be implemented along 4 phases: (1) kick-off: creating the cooperation framework (2) initial phase: analysis & scope of roadmap development, status quo report, mobilisation of stakeholders (3) interim phase: roadmap development & stakeholder engagement (4) final phase for policy endorsement.

The Residential and Commercial/Public Sector accounted for approximately 43% of energy consumption in Ireland in 2009 (SEAI, 2010). Data from the Quarterly National Household Surveys (CSO, 2011) indicates that the number of people directly employed in the construction industry peaked at 269,900 in 2007 but has now declined to 109,900 in 2010. It has been estimated that 1,000,000 Irish houses will require retrofitting by 2020. This combined with a target to achieve a low carbon standard for new buildings by 2015 and minimum renewable energy supply requirements for buildings will mean those working in or entering the construction sector need new specific energy skills. The Build Up Skills for Ireland (BUSI) Consortium has brought together key players with Project Management, Education and Training, Consultation and Networking skills. The BUSI partners will be supported by a Steering Committee which includes Strategic Stakeholders e.g. Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, Department of Communications Energy and Natural Resources and others. The Roadmap will be developed following a robust consultation process with the relevant stakeholders.