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.