BUILD UP Skills to Business

Project Information

BUStoB

Grant agreement ID: 649737

DOI 10.3030/649737

Closed project

EC signature date 4 February 2015

Start date 1 March 2015

End date 31 August 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost € 1 385 775,80

EU contribution € 1 385 775,80

Coordinated by

STICHTING OPLEIDINGS- EN ONTWIKKELINGSFONDS VOOR HET TECHNISCH INSTALLATIEBEDRIJF*ST.POL.- EN ONTWIKK.FONDS TECH INSTALL.BEDR OTIB
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BUStoB (BUILD UP Skills to Business)

Reporting period: 2016-09-01 to 2018-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BuildUpSkills to Business (BUStoB) was the 3rd implementation of the Dutch BUILD Up Skills Initiative. Its aim was to establish and upgrade large-scale qualification and training schemes in the Netherlands for craftsmen and other on-site workers. The concept of BUStoB built on the results and experience of the preceding Build Up Skills projects. This project has developed hands on assessments and short modular training in basic knowledge and skills for craftsmen and building workers. The assessments are meant to give individual workers and employers insight in their current skills level and the need/urgency for upskilling. The idea behind it all is that once entrepreneurs and individual workers find out that increased green skills leads to decreased failure costs, this will improve acceptance of RES and EE measures an increase demand for upskilling.

The project has developed and tested missing training materials on EQFlevels 2 – 4 based on the qualification schemes delivered in BUILD UP Skills Pillar II (BUS_N@W).
It also produced short practical skills measurement tests, which enable the prevention of building and installation mistakes made by unconsciously incompetent workers.
And lastly, regional pilots were organized focusing on implementation and evaluation of the developed materials and regional capacity building, including an analysis of long term labour market dynamics, coupled with governmental policy scenario’s.

BUStoB supported the formation of regional training partnerships for a successful implementation of the project results. Train-the-trainer sessions and sharing of regional labour market intelligence helped to bring training content and assessments in practice in regional building and/or renovation projects. The end results were presented to the stakeholders and target groups at a successful closing conference in June 2018.
The project consortium will continue to disseminate and upgrade the project’s results in the following years.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The BUStoB work plan contained the following work packages:
Work Package 1 – Management
Work package 2 - Development of training materials
Work package 3 - Development of BuildUpSkills-assessments
Work package 4 - Implementation in regional pilots
Work package 5 - Communication, dissemination and endorsement

WP1 contained all activities to organize and manage the project, maintain the project administration and report to all stakeholders and the EU.

In WP2 and WP3 a flexible format was developed to define and approve learning goals. Next, using this format in collaboration with an external expert and a feedback panel learning goals were defined for training modules on solar- and urban wind energy. This led to several improvements to the format, making it easier to use and far less time consuming. The e-assessments and e-learning modules were developed in a unified environment and form an integrated mobile learning package. While the actual content was produced, an instruction was written for the creation of learning journeys (a blueprint for designing learning interactions). During development the IMS-QTI and the SCORM standards have been observed, to ensure that after the project all content may be used in other e-learning platforms. An updated inventory of available courses was added to the BUILD UP Skills advisor app. The app was extended with an assessment module in which workers gain insight in their need for training by trying to identify construction errors.

In WP4 the consortium partners used their existing regional networks to contact training institutes, regular education institutes and installation companies. On a regional level each of the ROCs (ROC-Nijmegen, ROC van Twente, ROC Koning Willem I and ROC Midden Nederland) established and maintained contacts with their regional businesses in the construction, building and installation sector, regional governments and regional intermediaries. A lot of dedication and effort was spent to reach the target group. Monitoring of the training pilots helped to measure the effect of the training material in practice. The impact of BUStoB in the participating vocational institutes inspired several other vocational training centres to successfully apply for additional funding for incorporation of sustainability in their curricula.

In WP5 a communication, dissemination and endorsement plan was carried out, and a range of communication materials, a website and newsletters have been created during the project. A first national work conference took place in June 2016. An inventory and analysis of projects to attract women to the construction sector was also made in 2016. In September 2017 a second national work conference was held, and the final project results were presented at a national closing conference in June 2018. During the project several regional partnerships have been supported in the development of plans to acquire additional funding.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Now that BUStoB has reached its conclusion we can establish the results and the impact as follows:
- At least six pilot regions in the Netherlands (reached)
- At least 50 new organisations mobilised to participate in the BUILD UP Skills-NL platform (reached)
- Reaching at least 2,000 people through website and social media (surpassed, 4,361 users by the end date)
- At least 30,000 consultations of the BUILD UP Skills-NL-app (not reached): the BUILD UP Skills advisor app has only been online in its final version since January 2018. However, by the end of August 2018 the user base had grown to 1,173 active users with in total 23,499 screen views. It still continues to grow.
- Improved participation, qualifications and skills for a pool of talented women in the construction sector. The project’s goal was for 5% (150) of the participants are women. Although privacy regulations privacy regulations prevented the collection of accurate data in this respect, the observed participation of women in project events confirms that the results surpassed this target.
- Increase the skills of 3,000 craftsmen: the data obtained through the BUILD UP Skills advisor app indicates a number of approximately 2,000 craftsmen reached by the end of 2018. The statistics show a huge percentage of returning users (between 60-70%).
- Based on the number of craftsmen reached, an increase in RES-production of 2.53 GWh/year and a total decrease of energy consumption of 15.39 GWh/year.
- Increase in investments on innovative sustainable energy technologies with € 8,003,239 million: for newly built buildings we expect investments of € 3,456,000 million on PV (Eur2/Wp) and € 1,500,000 million for solar heating boilers (Eur 3,000/pce). Also the EE investments are being calculated at Eur 300,000/GWh which leads to an additional investment of € 1,352,981 million for newly built houses and € 3,191,258 million for renovations. These calculations are only based on building new dwellings, because official numbers on offices are not yet available. Adding offices will of course increase the numbers, but also requires additional effort from the workforce.

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