Abstract:

Projects, within “Erasmus +” European Union’s Programme, are expected to enhance modernisation and reinforce education and training systems in response to the main challenges of today's world (employment, economic stability and growth, as well as active participation in democratic life and free labour market).

Paper presents three Erasmus+ projects: MENTORCERT - "Business Mentor Training and Certification" (Project number 2017-1-HU01-KA202-035953), DIAGNOSIS - "Innovating a Crucial Profession in Building and Construction Sector" (Project number 2017-1-ES01-KA203-038254), and "Continuing V.E.T. Training Programme in Lean Construction to support the transition of the Construction Sector towards a more competitive and productive model" (Project number 2016-1-ES01-KA202-025694).

This innovative MENTORCERT project combines different levels of mentoring support for SMEs in different phases of the growth and development cycle. It provides an integrative framework that can be used to benchmark and develop the skills levels of mentors (from novice to expert). The framework is sensitive to the needs of leaders in a range of SMEs including those in early start-up, transition or growth phases of development. The project promotes university-business partnerships through the development of intelligence to enable business mentors to operate in prioritised regional sectors. By developing progression pathways (a certification scheme) for business mentors and moving towards international certification of business mentoring the project will help to overcome a lack of information on standards that are one of the most significant barriers to SME engagement across the EU.

DIAGNOSIS project is aimed at defining the professional profile of the experts for the diagnosis of the built heritage and establishing the necessary contents for their training. The Project has specialized partners, both Universities and entities in the construction sector of Spain, Italy, UK and Poland. RehabiMed leads the project and assumes the projection of the results both between the Euro-Mediterranean university world and the entire sector involved, with the objective of consolidating this profile of expert among the specialties related to the rehabilitation of local heritage.

LEANCO Training Programme is about training professionals from the Construction sector in Lean Construction, and bringing the necessary knowledge and competences to Professionals from the Construction sector to let them ensure the implementation of Lean Construction approach and management models within the companies of the construction sector.

Keywords:

Mentoring, coaching, diagnostics, lean construction, distance learning, education.