Abstract:

The construction industry, which accounts for a substantial share of worldwide GHG emissions, energy consumption and waste generation, must necessarily transition toward a more sustainable model to meet the targets set by the European Commission for 2030 and ensure the continent’s carbon neutrality by 2050.

Success in that endeavour will require all the agents involved in construction projects, from the least skilled onsite workers up, to be duly qualified. A need has been identified in recent years to provide eco-related training, particularly for workers employed by small and medium (SME) construction companies.

Focusing on Spain and funded by Europe’s Horizon 2020 Programme under item EE-14, Construction Skills, the “Construye 2020+” project is the continuation of the Build Up Skills initiative: Build Up Skills Spain (2011-2013) and Build Up Skills Spain "Construye 2020" (2013-2016). The initiative is currently active with the "Construye 2030" project approved by the European Commission under the Life Clean Energy Transition programme call 2022.

One of the “Construye 2020+” project objectives is to furnish construction workers with the necessary know-how so the industry will be able to comply with the European Commission’s energy objectives. The need for more highly qualified staff was detected during the roll-out of the BUILD UP Skills programme.

The "Construye 2020+" project has established a general training programme to heighten awareness of the importance of sustainable construction and the implications of mala praxis in construction. That has led to the design of a number of more specific training courses dealing with progress in building materials and systems as well as worksite management. Such action ultimately seeks greater energy savings across all stages of construction, from excavation and building through end-of-life demolition.

After analyzing the current state-of-the-art, this article discusses the methodology deployed in adapting "Construye 2020+" courses to the needs detected in the labour market and the training options with the potential to meet them. To that end it describes the learning methodology and basic course features (goals, skills, participant characteristic and materials) that determine training formats. All such features are addressed from the perspective of online use, drawing from methodologies such as building information modelling (BIM) and lean construction.

Keywords:

Construction, skills, training, sustainability, energy efficiency.