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EFBWW News

Construction Blueprint: a massive sectoral alliance to develop a new European strategy for skills

07/02/2019

Last week, more than 40 representatives of the European construction industry and Vocational and Education Training (VET) providers met at the Madrid headquarters of the Fundación laboral de la Construcción (FLC), for the launch of the European project “Construction Blueprint”. Financed by the Erasmus+ programme, this massive initiative coordinated by FLC aims to define a new strategy for professional competences and qualifications for the construction industry in Europe.

With a four-year roadmap and a budget of €4 million, this partnership gathers together the European employers’ organisations EBC and FIEC, the European sectorial trade union EFBWW, 9 national construction representatives and 12 VET providers from 12 European countries. The “Construction Blueprint” project has the following main objectives:

* the creation of an online monitoring tool to provide accurate information on training needs in different countries through the use of big data;

* The development of a methodology for reviewing profiles and professional qualifications in construction;

* The compilation of national and regional good practices that illustrate and promote initiatives to address the lack of professional skills;

* A massive outreach campaign to promote the attractiveness of the sector among women and young people, not only to achieve a balance in the sector, but also to encourage the mobility of apprentices and professionals across the EU;

* The development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) to raise awareness among construction workers on digitalisation, energy efficiency and circular economy;

* The establishment of a new virtual tool where all project outputs will be available for stakeholders, as well as a Sector Skills Alliance platform for collaborative work.

During the kick-off meeting (the first of eight meetings that the consortium will hold until the end of the project in 2022) the FLC Director General Enrique Corral pointed out the sense of responsibility that the coordination of such an important project implies, while Pavol Krempasky, on behalf of the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) of the European Commission (EC), emphasized that this partnership will mark the evolution of skills in the European construction industry.

Although initiatives aiming at addressing the problem of skills gaps and mismatches have been launched at all levels, there was a strong need for a more wide-ranging and coordinated approach. This is why this Sectoral Skills Strategy for the construction sector will bring together lessons learned so far under a holistic approach, identifying political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors affecting construction skills and training offer. This ambitious project will represent a major challenge over the next few years not only for the partners involved, but for the sector as a whole, with the European umbrella organisations, among which EBC, playing a key political steering role.