Fundación Laboral de la Construcción continues working for the improvement of the construction sector and its professionals, and for its projection in Europe. Its International Projects Department has won four Erasmus+ projects (two of them as coordinator and two as partner). One of them is Green Growth, an initiative on competencies to face the challenges of the circular economy in construction.

For this new challenge, Fundación will work with six partners from Germany (BZB and Sustainum), Belgium (Centre Ifapme Liège-Huy-Verviers ASBL), Slovenia (GZS), Spain (Armadillo Amarillo) and Italy (Scuola Costruzioni Vicenza Andrea Palladio). It will start on November 15th and will create a 30-month collaboration (until May 14th 2023), with a budget of almost €300,000.

The construction industry is responsible for more than 35% of total waste generation in the European Union (EU), thus the sector plays a key role in achieving the challenge that Europe poses to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

The Action Plan for the Circular Economy identifies the productive activities of the construction sector as key chains for circular economy and supports measures that will have a strong impact on skills and competences needed by professionals, especially in the demolition stage -during decommissioning, reuse, recovery or removal of construction materials-, according to the European Construction Sector Observatory (ECSO).

Reducing CO2 emissions, through VET

Following these lines, Green Growth aims to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions from the construction sector, by different strategies to strengthen the circular economy, as a transversal competence in the field of Education and Vocational Training (VET). The aims are:

• Raising awareness of the importance of a holistic view of production processes, to encourage the application of circular principles to trainers, workers, companies and vocational training centers in the construction industry.
• Promoting specialized training tools in sustainable construction of VET, making a sector more attractive and increasing its transition to a circular economy.
• Strengthening the skills of VET centers to adopt a circular economy approach and to apply it in their workshops.
• Responding to the new expertise needs of the construction sector in terms of reuse and recycling materials and waste management, which affect workers and SMEs specialized in rehabilitation works.
• Improving job opportunities in the construction labor market and sustainable economy, and creating career and business opportunities for construction workers and SMEs.
• Promoting cooperation between educational institutions and companies, as a result of the adaptation and exchange of training solutions between both worlds.

Planned results

For 30 months, the consortium will carry out several activities to achieve the project objectives and contribute to the implementation of a circular economy plan in the construction VET sector. Among them, it will be created:

• A manual for VET trainers in construction: "The circular economy in practice".
• A free online course (MOOC) on circular economy skills for construction VET trainers.
• A mobile application (App) on circular economy in building rehabilitation works.
• A roadmap for the delivery of construction training with a circular and sustainable approach.

Fundación Laboral is working on other projects on circular economy and sustainable construction, which complement this new Green Growth, such as: Construction Blueprint, Health and Safety Blueprint, Construye 2020+, Bus.Trainers, CDWaste-ManageVET, RCDi Green, Si!BIM or Icons, among others.

New projects

On the other hand, Fundación Laboral has won again a mobility project for teachers and training managers, Build your future 2020, belonging to Erasmus+, which starts next October 1st and will run for two years, with a budget of €64,945.

In addition, the joint entity will be a partner in two other initiatives. On the one hand, the SetAR project (Safe Earthworks Training with the use of Augmented Reality) for training in safe earthworks with the use of Augmented Reality, led by the Warsaw University of Technology (Poland). It will start on December 1st and will last for 24 months. On the other hand, the project Let's Campaign, to exchange good practices in VET in construction, coordinated by the Scuola Costruzioni Vicenza Andrea Palladio (Italy), which will start next October 1st and will end after two years.