Fundación Laboral de la Construcción is participating for the first time in a project on Health and Safety training in excavation and earthwork, called SetAr. It belongs to the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission (EC). It is led by the Warsaw University of Technology (Poland), in collaboration with the University of Valencia, the Polish Association of Construction Managers and the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany).

The aim of this initiative is to reduce the accident rate during excavation works, through a training methodology based on the use of Augmented Reality (AR).

To achieve this goal, from now until November 2022, training resources will be developed with specific content on earthwork, focusing on work efficiency and health and safety standards.

This collaboration will contribute to the employability of construction workers, to improve mobility of construction personnel due to its international content (presentation of practices from participating countries) and to familiarise users with the vocabulary and terms used in specific earthwork activities.

In line with the challenges of construction in Europe: training, generational change and innovation

Moreover, the project aims to add value in line with the main challenges facing the construction sector  indicated by the European Commission: improving specialised training, making the sector more attractive, in particular for less qualified workers, technical schools and universities, and promoting innovation through the use of technologies.

The project will address these needs by designing an innovative methodology using AR technology.

The partners held the kick-off meeting of the project on December 18, where the first steps to develop the contents included in the AR training tool were defined. Firstly, the partnership decided to focus on the most common earthwork works - deep foundation excavations and machinery operation - by dividing the materials into three categories: preparation of the works, carrying out excavation works and use or maintenance of the excavation.

In line with the objective of the European Directive 2001/45/EC, which requires appropriate measures to be taken to improve the Health and Safety of workers, Fundación Laboral has already worked with some of the members of this partnership in two other European projects: ARCW (2013-2015), belonging to the European Leonardo da Vinci Programme, which addressed Health and Safety procedures for the construction of curtain walls; and Arfat (2016-2018), from the Erasmus+ programme, which focused on training for the safe assembly of formwork and scaffolding. Both projects designed AR applications that promoted training through innovative learning methods and the use of platforms and applications for mobile devices, as SetAr will do.

Thus, thanks to the use of innovative teaching resources, the project is in line with the strategic framework for European cooperation in the field of education and training (ET 2020), developing an updated training that ensures the adequacy of future professionals to the  labour market qualification needs.