Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SEEtheSkills (Sustainable EnErgy Skills in construction: Visible, Validated, Valuable)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-06-01 bis 2022-11-30
SEEtheSkills aims at uniting the best from BUS experiences in five countries: North Macedonia, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Netherlands. Precedent actions in each of the countries put a mark and become recognized by innovation and bravery to meet the challenges in introduction of new approaches in meeting needs for energy efficiency in building sector. As the actions within BUS initiative and follow-up H2020 Construction skills projects revealed different approaches in skilling and upskilling of building workforce, the best experiences will be a starting point to build upon in this action and will be a subject of iterative improvement, upgrading and implementation.
The overall objective of the proposed project is: Challenging market acceptance and act toward stimulation of demand of energy skills in construction through a novel 3V approach, to support need for energy-efficient construction of new and renovation of the existing building stock
O1 To make skills VISIBLE through the whole value chain in the building sector by implementing an Integrated register of energy skills as a cloud repository on an interregional level, based on good practices from ongoing and recently finalized projects, that will result with increasing the number of skilled building professionals and/or blue collar workers;
O2 To VALIDATE skills relevance to standardized EE construction and interventions in renovation, by matching and leveling skills and linking them to national and EU qualification standards, to enable mutual recognition;
O3 To emphasize skills VALUE in order to stimulate market demand for energy skills in design, construction and maintenance of buildings and manufacturing and installation of EE construction materials.
In-depth research on the status of energy skills. This was done with a very comprehensive literature review resulting in over 500 resources that give answers in the Energy Efficiency (EE) and Renewable Energy Systems (RES) areas, going both wide, by trying to identify as many different examples as possible, and deep, by digging into the examples themselves. Additionally, a general survey in all five different countries (NL, ES, SL, SI and MK) was conducted, where collectively over 400 responses from individuals and representatives of companies that operate in the field of EE, were obtained. Some general conclusions are toward the need of visibility of skills, identification of the existing training schemes and the skills gap and finding mechanisms to express the value and to raise the demand for skills.
The concept of the web-based Integrated Register of Energy skills, is developed, as a very ambitious idea, aiming to interconnect three different types of databases, all related to energy skills. The 3 different databases refer to the database of training schemes, then the database or register of skilled workers and the third database is the database of construction materials and products, along with the corresponding companies. Designing a novel tool to integrate those databases into Integrated Register of Energy skills, which will be available on EU level, is the underpinning idea of the SEEtheSkills, which will link all of this very diverse data in on single, easy-to-access and use, cloud-based repository. The proposed structure of the Integrated Register is enriched with multiple functionalities integrated within it. It includes offered e-learning platform for easy upskilling of the professionals, a tool for self-inspection of skills, but also a digital tool for validation of prior learning, leading to certification. These functionalities are raising the value of the Integrated Register, and are making it unique on the interregional level.
As the Integrated Register of Energy skills aims to be available on EU level, it will be promoted widely and also will be replicated in several countries different form the project partner countries. This is expected to serve as a direct promotion of this digital solution as a single place where energy skills may be obtained, certified, found, and made accessible and valuable.
The direct impacts f the successful implementation of project activities spread across different areas:
-20+ harmonized certification schemes in the scheme’s database
-2500+ skilled workers in the database
-1000+ mutually recognized professionals /
-5+ “micro” roadmaps for legislation changes offered to governments
and this includes the indirect expected impacts, like:
-RE production triggered of 2,75 GWh
-triggered investments in sustainable energy of 4,8 million Euro
So far recognized wider implications of the project go toward the more louder pronouncement that there are many and different actions already taken to develop and increase energy skills, but the thing that is lacking is higher visibility and structuring of all the available outcomes and achievements, which make it no so easy to access all the possibilities. This lead to the not recognized value of energy skills and not expressed demand for skilled professionals. The common actions of similar projects and joint activities are the key to getting wider attention to the issue and more significant socio-economical impact.