Category: Meeting

The ‘Construction Blueprint 2’ project, co-funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme, held its second transnational meeting on 8 and 9 October in Athens (Greece). A key meeting in which the European consortium reviewed the progress of the activities under development and strengthened the collaboration between the partners to boost professional qualifications in the European construction sector.

The meeting was organised by the Greek partner PEDMEDE, in collaboration with the coordinators of the initiative, the Construction Labour Foundation, and brought together representatives of the participating organisations from 10 European countries, together with experts from the European Commission: Roman Horvath, Policy Officer of the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG Grow); and Paolo Zancanella, Project Officer of the European Executive Agency for Education and Culture (EACEA). They highlighted the role of the project as a key element to advance the preparation of construction workers and enterprises for the green and digital transition.

What was discussed at the meeting?

During these two days of work, the project partners deepened the progress of the main expected results, among which the following stand out:

• Updating of the Skills Observatory, an essential tool to identify current and emerging skills required in the European market.
• Detection of urgent qualification needs, both in current professions and in new key competences.
• Design of continuous training programmes and curricular content adapted to the demands of the sector.
• Creation of a web platform of training resources to facilitate access to learning materials across Europe.
• Development of the European Skills Strategy, with a roadmap and a training action plan aligned with the objectives of digital and green sustainability.

Equality, inclusion and talent attraction

The meeting also included a specialised seminar on awareness-raising actions to promote the presence of women in construction, attract young people to the sector and address issues related to equal opportunities and non-discrimination, led by Jasper Van Loo, expert and coordinator of the Skills and Labour Market Department of CEDEFOP (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training).

During his presentation he discussed the detailed analysis of the construction sector landscape, based on information gathered by the European Centre, and highlighted the expected strong demand for employment in the sector, mainly driven by the retirement of a large part of the current workforce, as well as the most demanded skills in the sector.

Today, UGT FICA presented the European Blueprint2 project to territorial secretaries and coordinators from the construction sector.

The session included the participation of Andrés Mellá on behalf of FLC, who, after presenting the Blueprint2 project, outlined its main pillars. The project aims to develop new strategies to improve the exchange of training resources and to establish a pilot initiative featuring an innovative training programme focused on urgently needed skills. Work is also underway to update the Construction Skills Observatory.

One of the project’s objectives is to create a website that will host training resources for reskilling and skills development, implement vocational training programmes that include transversal, digital, and green skills, and adapt competencies to new sector needs. It also aims to train trainers, develop practical materials for teachers and students, and create a flexible micro-credential certification system, among other actions.

As part of the project, efforts are being made to identify the most urgent and emerging skills required in the construction industry, particularly those linked to the sector’s green and digital transition.

The next step will be to implement a pilot project to promote training in green and digital skills and begin developing an interactive map of best practices.

At the end of the session, participants, as workers’ representatives, highlighted the real difficulties workers face in accessing training during working hours, as well as the challenges in offering training to unemployed people. They also stressed the need to provide online training in areas not covered by existing initiatives, the importance of increasing training hours in provincial agreements, and the need to adapt occupational risk prevention training to the use of new materials in the sector.