On 3 and 4 November, the first meeting of the European project ‘Construye 2030’ was held, where the objectives and results to be developed by the partners were shared.
The Fundación Laboral de la Construcción is coordinating the fourth initiative of the BUILD UP Skills projects in Spain, ‘Construye 2030’. This is a project co-funded by the Life Clean Energy Transition programme (identification number: 101077607), which aims to update the status quo of the sector and the roadmap designed to contribute to the achievement of the energy objectives of the 2030 Agenda.
It involves the National Construction Confederation (CNC), CCOO Habitat, UGT FICA, the Eduardo Torroja Institute of Construction Sciences (IETcc) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Green Building Council Spain (GBCe), the State Foundation for Employment Training (Fundae), and the National Institute of Qualifications (INCUAL) of the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training.
The objective of this project focuses on making a training proposal tailored to the needs of companies and the energy requirements of buildings, through the relaunch of the National Qualification Platform, the preparation of a study on the current situation of the construction sector (Status Quo), and the design of a Training Roadmap.
All these results will be elaborated following a methodology of collaborative work with professionals from different areas of construction, analysing sector statistics, developing focus groups and interviews with experts, organising support seminars and disseminating the project.
Challenges to be addressed by ‘Construye 2030’
For 18 months, the partners of the European project ‘Construye 2030’ will work on the development of a series of activities that will help drive the construction sector towards the goals of the 2030 Agenda:
- National Qualification Platform. The aim of this activity is to be a space of reference on training issues for the construction sector. Through a multidisciplinary perspective, which provides information and solutions to the same fact from different realities, a platform will be launched that will bring together the largest possible number of construction professionals.
- Status Quo. This is a review of the construction panorama in Spain, which through a field analysis will establish the training needs of the construction sector to achieve better energy performance of buildings and contribute to the European objectives for 2030. The importance of this study lies in the need to know the current state of the sector after the regulatory changes, COVID-19 and the energy crisis.
- Training Roadmap. This is a report that will include all the information gathered in the Status Quo and the opinions of the experts that make up the Platform. In addition, it will set out priority measures aimed at making certain professions in the sector capable of achieving Europe’s sustainable objectives, identify the actors and resources needed to implement the proposal and, finally, include measures to monitor the progress of the activities.
The BUILD UP Skills initiative in Spain
The European Commission launched the BUILD UP Skills initiative in 2011, with the aim of increasing the number of trained and qualified construction professionals throughout Europe to carry out the renovation of the building stock and offer high energy performance, as well as the construction of new buildings with almost zero energy consumption.
Since the beginning of the BUILD UP Skills stage, the Fundación Laboral de la Construcción has been at the forefront of its implementation and, for this, it has relied on robust consortiums in which, from the beginning, the participation of CSIC and INCUAL has been maintained; entities which, depending on the objectives of the project, have been joined by other Spanish organisations with extensive experience in the field of sectoral training.
- Build Up Skills Spain’ project (2011-2013), co-funded by the Intelligent Energy Europe programme of the European Commission. In this phase, 30 European countries participated, bringing together professionals from the energy, training and construction sectors to set up National Qualification Platforms, which mapped the characteristics of workers in the sector and the training available, identifying future training needs in the sector for 2020. Each country collected this information in a report called Status Quo and, based on this, the members of the platforms formulated measures to overcome barriers at national level in so-called Roadmaps.
- Project ‘Build Up Skills Spain. Build Up Skills Spain. Build Up 2020’, part of the Intelligent Energy Europe programme of the European Commission. In this phase, 22 European projects were co-financed, also at national level, through which the actions included in the Roadmaps of the previous initiative were implemented.
- Project ‘Construye 2020+’ (2018-2021), part of the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme, in which 25 European consortia participated to boost the demand for qualified professionals through the recognition of competences and qualifications. During this initiative, dissemination and awareness-raising actions on the importance of sustainable values in the construction industry were intensified by launching different awareness-raising campaigns. In addition, in Spain, the professional qualification of Energy Auditing was approved by the Spanish Council of Ministers.
