On 10th July, Fundación Laboral de la Construcción brought together at the headquarters of the Official College of Architects of Madrid (trad. Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid. COAM), the main actors in the sector -employers (National Confederation of Construction, CNC), the main trade unions in the sector (CCOO del Habitat and UGT FICA), public administrations and companies- to analyse the challenges of sustainable construction in Spain from the perspective of training and employment. 

In this sense, during the opening of the event, the president of CNC and FLC, Pedro Fernández Alén, recalled the work of the sector, ‘supplier of buildings, cities and infrastructures that make possible the development of all our activities and that is capable of providing habitability, security and welfare to society’, and warned that an ecological transition of the current production system is necessary ‘and our economy must overcome a scenario in which there is climate stress, an increase in energy prices and we have to import non-renewable raw materials’.

He added: ‘We will have to adapt our buildings, homes, cities, infrastructures to continue to maintain our current well-being. The future is today in our sector, and it involves sustainability and energy efficiency, as we are having a direct impact on the mitigation of climate change, the adaptation of our buildings and cities to the adverse effects of climate change, the protection of water resources, the prevention of pollution and the protection of ecosystems where we provide technology capable of promoting these objectives in the rehabilitation of more sustainable buildings, building renovations that prioritise energy savings, new non-polluting materials and environmentally sustainable infrastructure projects’. 

From the trade union side, the secretary general of CCOO del Hábitat and vice-president of FLC, Daniel Barragán, recalled that there are many challenges in the field of sustainability, which he described as ‘essential for our lives’ and prioritised the need for training in this area. Barragán mentioned that ‘new employment formulas are being generated and in this sense we have many challenges to face’.

‘Although construction will continue to need the trades traditionally related to the sector, bricklayers, crane operators or foremen, from now on we have new formulas and in this chapter there is the challenge of attracting new talent to the sector in the face of the lack of labour in construction. I am referring to the challenge of generating quality jobs, hand in hand with digitalisation, and which are an opportunity for the sector to make it more attractive to young people, who are our present and our future,’ he argued.

Likewise, from the UGT Federation of Industry, Construction and Agriculture (UGT FICA), its secretary for the Construction and Mining Sector and member of FLC Board of Trustees, Sergio Estela, wanted to highlight that production is moving towards a more sustainable world and this is going to change the way we build, which is why he advocated ‘a just transition that instead of double is a triple transition: green, digital and social rights, where the environment, economy and the social part are balanced’.

According to UN data, in 2050, 68% of the population will be in cities, and ‘this is a challenge to try to change the habitability of cities, new ways of building and ways of rehabilitating’, explained Estela, who recalled that the sector has been engaged in social dialogue for 32 years ‘with a consensus in which we are moving forward together’. ‘How can we move forward? -Well, we believe that through Fundación Laboral de la Construcción, our jewel in the crown, we can set up these events and events and promote lifelong training in construction that makes it possible to work on site. We advocate continuous training through the joint body; let's be proactive to improve the sector’.

Training and employment initiatives in sustainable construction

Following the programme, after the opening of this first event on ‘Training and Employment Initiatives for Sustainable Construction’, Laura Castela, Director of Communication, Digitalisation and Alliances of FLC, as master of ceremonies, gave way to the dialogue and debate tables where the training and employability needs for the sector derived from the ecological and energy transition were addressed. 

The first of the two roundtables, moderated by Beatriz Oliete, head of International Projects at FLC, focused on the analysis of several initiatives aimed at sustainability derived from European directives and plans, carried out by FLC through EU founds. Specifically, the objectives and results of four of these projects were analysed: NaturBuild (co-founded by the EU's Erasmus+ programme and aimed at learning about green roofs and their contribution to urban and building sustainability), presented by Silvia Santos, Senior International Projects Technician at FLC; BuildOffsiteEU (also co-founded by the Erasmus+ programme and focused on the development of training itineraries for industrialised construction), presented by Belén Blanco, International Projects Technician at FLC; and Cimientos para Empleo (financed by the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, aimed at attracting professionals to the sector through socio-occupational intermediation tools) presented by Elisabet Pallarés, Employment Projects Technician at FLC.

The results of the Construye 2030 project (co-founded by the EU LIFE programme, part of the BUILD UP Skills initiative, aimed at increasing the number of professionals qualified in sustainable construction) were then presented. Speakers included María Ángeles Asenjo, International Director of CNC; Sergio López, Secretary of Sectoral Policy of CCOO del Hábitat; Nuria Pérez, Secretary of Trade Union Training and Qualification of UGT FICA, and Esther Rodríguez, International Projects Technician of FLC. The round table presented the necessary measures aimed at developing and updating existing training, measures to support training and employment systems, and measures to attract professionals to the sector, especially women, young people and workers from highly polluting industries. It was also highlighted that, in order to achieve the energy transition, collaboration between public administration, training centres and companies that promote sustainable construction and the importance of the qualification of the entire value chain is essential.

The second round table began with the presentation by the moderator, Javier González, Director of Training and Employment of the FLC of the Sustainability Group, included in the Strategic Plan of FLC, and aimed at promoting sustainability in construction in terms of training and employment to achieve an innovative, sustainable, egalitarian and inclusive sector. Speakers at this round table discussion included Mariano Sanz, Secretary General of CNC; Aida Suárez, Secretary for Occupational Health and State Communication of CCOO del Hábitat; Sergio Estela, Secretary of the Construction and Mining Sector of UGT FICA and member of the FLC Board of Trustees; José Antonio Tenorio, Senior Scientist at Eduardo Torroja Institute of Construction Sciences of CSIC (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities), and Victoria Tortonda, Head of Talent Attraction at Avintia Group.

Javier González summed up the debate by stating that: ‘There are three types of challenges. The first would be structural, i.e. those derived from the circular economy, energy savings and adaptation to the environment, such as, for example, health, climate change mitigation, etc. Another challenge would be social and relates to the way in which companies and/or public administrations work to comply with the requirements imposed by Europe. And finally, we face a very important challenge, which has to do with skills and employment.

The event was also attended by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, with a presentation by Fernando García, Head of the Residential and Buildings Department of the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), which reports to the Secretary of State for Energy. García Mozos offered a holistic and integrated vision of sustainability in the construction sector. In his speech he recalled that industrialised construction makes it possible to reduce residual embedded carbon by 52%, so that ‘today it seems that new industrialised construction is one of the strategies for reducing embedded carbon’. Among his conclusions, he stressed that the implementation of Horizon 2050 in Europe is a great challenge for sustainability in building ‘and will require skilled labour and, therefore, training and updating in different areas’.

After a six-hour meeting, the event was brought to a close by María Eugenia del Río, Secretary of the Governing Board of the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM), which hosted the event, and who thanked FLC for choosing its facilities to hold this meeting dedicated to sustainability in construction. ‘Sustainability and efficiency criteria are now applied to all architectural projects from the very beginning. What we architects design is built by other agents in the sector and the only way to make this possible is thanks to the training and collaboration of all those involved in the construction cycle’, she concluded.