Abstract:

Nature-based solutions: green roofs training for urban and building sustainability (NaturBuild) is a European project under the Erasmus+ KA2 programme of Cooperation partnerships in vocational education and training, with the Agreement number 2021-KA220-VET-7D7D053A.

NaturBuild project seeks to create a comprehensive, module-based training course to skill construction blue-collar workers in the installation, maintenance, and deconstruction of nature-based solutions (NBS) for urban and building sustainability, improving education, awareness and institutional capacity of buildings and cities impact mitigation. The project is being developed under the theme of Education for Sustainability (from Global Issues in Education Research), Skills needs of labour market (from Curriculum design) and a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) (included in E-content Development and Open Educational Resources).

The training course addresses the skills gaps on NBS, more concretely on green roofs, and their digitalisation. These results go in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs), such as the Quality Education (SDG’s nº4), Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG’s nº11), Climate Actions (SDG’s nº13) and Life on Land (SDG’s nº15). In addition, NaturBuild is supported by three main European Union (UE) pillars: European Education Area (especially its “green and digital transitions”); European Skills Agenda (focused on constructions recovery starts, upskilling need to focus on energy and resource efficiency”), and European Green Deal (specifically “sustainable industry” and “building renovating”).

NaturBuild course is structured in four modules:
Module 1.- Global Awareness, with the objective to establish a common background for all occupations involved on the building process of NBS, providing and overview of the state of art.
Module 2.- Installation of green roofs, including clear instructions on the steps to be followed in each phase of the installation process.
Module 3.- Maintenance of green roof, providing instructions on the steps to be followed in the different maintenance tasks.
Module 4.- Deconstruction, dealing with the deconstruction a green roof to install a new one and how to deconstruct a (normal) roof.

The course is integrated in the Moodle platform and counts on a skills perimeter based in learning outcomes, and 2D and 3D activities supporting the training, aiming at improving not only the digitalisation of the training in the construction sector, but also the blue-collars’ digital skills.
Besides these project results, further outcomes that this project will achieve such as a research and analysis of green roofs skills demand and related skills gaps (occupational profiles involved) and definition of skills perimeter; an interactive map with examples and previously analysed information on green roofs in the countries participating in the project (Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Greece). Dissemination activities as the key information of the project at regional, national, and European level.

NaturBuild started in February 2022 and will be finished in August 2024. It is coordinated by Fundación Laboral de la Construcción (Spain) and is developed together with Panhellenic Association of Engineers (Greece), Ente Scuola Edile di Piacenza (Italy); Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (Portugal) and Instituto de Robótica y Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación, adscript a la Universidad de Valencia (Spain). Further information is available at https://naturbuild.eu/en/home/.

Keywords:

Nature-based solutions, Green roofs, Green skills, Digitalisation, Vocational training, Erasmus+.