On 12 and 13 April, more than 60 professionals from the 24 project partners met virtually at the fifth meeting of the initiative. Two representatives of the Commission and an external evaluator also attended and provided recommendations and improvements for the next two years.
More than 60 representatives of the Construction Blueprint partnership met on 12 and 13 April for the project’s fifth meeting. It was also attended by representatives of the European Commission (EC), Roman Horvath, Policy Officer for Sustainable Industrial Policy and Construction of the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG Grow), Pavol Krempasky, project manager at the European Executive Agency for Education and Culture (EACEA), and external evaluator Manon van Leeuwen from the consultancy firm Eolas.
Fundación Laboral leads the work of 24 partners from 12 countries in this initiative, which is one of the Strategies for cooperation in key sectoral competences of the New Skills Agenda for Europe, launched in 2019, along 3D printing, maritime transport and steel industry sectors. Fundación Laboral has a budget of €4,000,000 over four years to create the new training framework for construction in the European Union (EU), which will be adapted to the skills set by international challenges such as energy efficiency, digitalisation and circular economy.
The EC representatives, direct evaluators on behalf of the Commission, pointed out the importance of achieving climate-neutral construction industry in line with the EU’s green economy principles. In their review of the first two years of the project, they made recommendations and improvements for the further development of the project.
Manon van Leeuwen presented her external evaluation of the first period of the Construction Blueprint and offered suggestions for improving the quality of the project.
Progress and results
Over two days of virtual meetings, the lead partners of the different work packages presented the results achieved so far and the next steps to be taken.
Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) and BFW-NRW presented their ongoing analysis of curricula and online trainings for the subsequent updating of professional skills in energy efficiency, digitalisation and circular economy. This includes 42 training programmes collected by the partnership, as well as 129 e-learning courses from 17 European projects.
AKMI, in charge of the study on occupational profiles in the construction sector that need to be updated in terms of energy efficiency, circular economy and digitalisation, explained its approach and presented a first draft of occupations to be analysed.
Moreover, the Ifapme Liège-Huy-Verviers Centre and CCCA-BTP presented the approach for the future Construction Skills Observatory, which will rely on the launch of a survey addressed to 2,000 companies in the sector in Europe to identify their skills needs. The first results are expected to be available after this summer.
In addition, pilot trainings in energy efficiency, digitalisation and circular economy will start between September and December 2021.
FIEC, EFBWW and EBC, partners in charge of the Sector Skills Alliance, presented the roll-out of the Construction Blueprint through the national events taking place and through the project’s LinkedIn group for stakeholders, which currently gathers 262 members of the sector from different EU countries.
Fundación Laboral reviewed the technical, management and financial issues, the status of the dissemination, exploitation, sustainability and impact of the project, and presented the new Communication Plan for the years 2021 and 2022. In addition, they showed the training modules European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET), and the result of the Health and Safety Blueprint tender, commissioned by the EC to the organisation.