Trenchless technologies, through drones; exoskeletons to lift beams; Virtual Reality to prevent accidents in road works; gamification for a more dynamic learning; or houses and buildings built through 3D printing. The digital transformation is revolutionizing the construction sector and the way professionals are trained and learn.

This situation was discussed at the "II Conference on Innovation in Training for the Construction Industry" organised by Fundación Laboral de la Construcción, on October 30th at the Espacio Bertelsmann, an emblematic place rehabilitated in the early 1990s by Enric Miralles (architect and designer), located in Madrid's Calle de O'Donnell.

The second edition had more than one hundred professionals, who were joined by another hundred virtual assistants, by streaming. All of them were paying attention to the technological, learning and social innovations that were presented, as part of the European projects results of the Foundation.

Dani Seseña, speaker and director of the programme Cámara abierta of TVE, was the speaker of the event and gave the lecture "Perspectiva conectada". "We are at a moment of convergence of many worlds and many contexts, in which the information society and the construction industry 4.0 share technological advances. We have to learn and make a place for ourselves, so workshops and training, like those of the Foundation, are necessary to renew ourselves, to understand what is happening and to incorporate the positive into our reinvention," he said.

This journalist, with more than 20 years of experience in digital content, presented real cases of innovation that are already changing the construction world, such as the sustainable space of L'Alqueria of Basket in Valencia; the application of exoskeletons to construction, from 2020; or the first family home printed in 3D in Nantes (France).

Other examples are the cases of the Fundación Laboral where sustainable techniques have been applied. Such as its Centre in Galicia, or the BIM methodology, or in the construction of the new Centre in Valladolid.

"And I ask myself: What does all this mean for the future? What information/communication/learning process is behind it? How many people can the construction industry transform? With these questions, Seseña talked about the challenges that have to be overcome by the professionals of the sector, the companies and all the stakeholders. Because "technology is absolutely necessary to improve the processes, especially the learning ones, and this 'being under construction' is not an ongoing state, but a dynamic process that does not stop", he concluded.

Social scenarios, technological disruption and new professional profiles

For his part, Juan José Juárez, senior project manager of the Bertelsmann Foundation, highlighted the three main challenges: new social scenarios, technological disruption and new professional profiles.

For Juárez, the first challenge is sustainability, energy efficiency and the consumption of materials and their impact. "Cement manufacturing worldwide is responsible for 7% of CO2 emissions, while in the aeronautical industry it is 3.6%, which is half, and receives a lot of pressure for that. We have the challenge of making a more efficient sector," he said.

As regard to technological disruption, the spokesman said that we must take advantage of advances: "After all, today, the way in which construction processes are approached, with technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR), allows us to know possible mistakes and rectify them before they are built, as well as knowing how a building will impact the environment, usability, etc.

Finally, he highlighted the challenge shared by the Bertelsmann Foundation and the Fundación Laboral: "We are aware of what is happening with the professions, with those professional profiles that get mixed up". In this sense, he also launched several questions, defending that "the technology changes the professional profile", such as the case of trenchless technology, with the use of drones. "We are no longer talking about someone who opens a hole in the asphalt and sees it, but someone who drives a drone to avoid opening where it was not the fault. So, how do we train this professional, where does he come from, what is his original training, how do we complement it?

The Bertelsmann representative confirmed that this is a challenge that the training institutions have to face. "That is why we welcome Fundación Laboral de la Construcción, because we are in line with this challenge, to be the most effective and agile in these training processes. We have to collaborate, to facilitate the traffic of the students, of the trainers, of the apprentices, of the professionals for this retraining, in order to make it a lifelong training".

The European initiatives

The public was able to find out about the innovations of seven European projects presented by the project officers of the International Projects department of the entity. The presentation began with Javier González,head of the department, he offered an overview of the "European Projects of the Foundation: technological tools for learning".

• The environmental skills for teachers in the construction industry provided by the Bus.Trainers project were presented by the project officer, Beatriz Oliete.
• The digital community that links apprentices, trainers and companies to promote work-based learning and the transition of young people to employment, of the TransToWork project, was described by the project officer, Silvia Santos.
• To explain the Women Can Build initiative, Esther Rodriguez project officer, used one of the videos that collect real testimonies from students and teachers of the Foundation.
• Another tool for professionals and trainees was presented by the project officer, Clara Garcia, focused on promoting business skills in the construction sector, through the Tycon project.
• The BIM methodology was also a protagonist in the intervention of Laura Mesa to present the Net-Ubiep initiative, a European network for the improvement of the energy performance of buildings.
• The serious game to improve basic Health and Safety skills in working at heights of the Upp Games initiative was entrusted tothe project officer, Belén Blanco.
• And the presentation of the prototype of a Virtual Reality application to improve Health and Safety skills in the roadworks for the VRoad project was made by David Pesado, the project officer

Construction industry 4.0: Beyond BIM

After a break, José Antonio Viejo, director of the Training and Employment Area of the Foundation, presented the Round Table on "Digital skills for the transition of the sector towards a construction industry 4.0: Beyond BIM", in which Aída Machado, technical director of Integesa; Mario Rondán, co-founder and head of Strategy and Innovation of EPC Tracker; and three example of good practices: Óscar Aranda, director of Management Systems (Quality, PRL, Environment and Innovation) of the Lobe Group; Izan Liarte, a Lobe Group worker and former student of the Fundación Laboral de la Construcción de Aragón; and Juan Lobaco, head of studies at the Integrated Vocational Training Centre of the Fundación Laboral de Aragón, explain their experiences.

Enrique Corral, general director of Fundación Laboral de la Construcción, closed the second edition of the Innovation Conference, claiming that the strategy of the entity is "to be the driving force behind the transformation of the construction sector", and that the three values of this strategy are: "commitment to the sector, innovation and efficiency".

After a review of the day, Corral concluded saying that:"these events make us feel proud of the team at the Fundación Laboral de la Construcción".