During 2019, the themes that have been most promoted from Brussels have been the energy rehabilitation, the water efficiency, and the new methodologies such as BIM and Lean; also the digitization of the sector and of the professionals, the circular economy or the integration of women into the sector, among some of the trends in European industry.

With this, the European Union tries to overcome the objectives proposed a decade ago in the "Europe 2020 Strategy" and in the Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and the Council of 19th May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings.

This horizon that was driving the construction sector to achieve the European recommendations and obligations before 2020 has been extended with a focus on 2050.

During this time, Fundación Laboral de la Construcción has worked and continues working to improve and to turn the construction sector into a modern, professional and competitive industry, through the training and the European initiatives.

25 projects, belonging to six European programmes

During 2019, the joint entity participated in 25 projects, belonging to the European programmes Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (Amif), Erasmus+, Horizon 2020, Interreg Sudoe, Poctefa and UIA. Together with this initiatives, the Commission charged the EU strategic design of a new professional skills for the construction industry to the entity. The Construction Blueprint is an initiative that involves 24 partners from 12 countries, with a budget of four million euros, this project is complemented with the European tender: H&S Blueprint.

In addition, it was awarded by the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (Sepie) with the  European Quality Charter for Mobility for the management of Erasmus+ grants as a 'Center of Excellence', during the period 2014-2020.

Of these 25 initiatives, the Foundation is leading nine projects: seven in progress (Construction Blueprint, H&S Blueprint, Construye 2020+, VRoad, Women Can Build, Upp Games and Bus.Trainers) and two completed during this period (EuroCons and Novacons).

As a partner organisation, the joint entity is working on 12 ongoing projects (RCdiGreen, Si!BIM, Icons, Energy Poverty Intelligence Unit -Epiu-, CDWaste-ManageVET, Bionic, In2C, Reforme+, Icaro, Tycon, NetconVet and Watter Skills) and four completed projects (Net-Ubiep, SomexNet, TransToWork and Rehabilite).

The training is the main reason why these projects offer innovative training products to improve the professionals and the construction companies. Also, promote the international mobility of apprentices and workers, the learning based on educational games, virtual reality, free online courses, mobile applications, etc.

Other dissemination actions

This year, the International Projects department of the entity presented its II Conference on Innovation in Training of the Construction Industry, which was held in the Bertelsmann Space and had around 100 attendees and more than 270 followers by streaming.

Another action of the Foundation is its newsletter 'Building Europe', in which quarterly news are collected, in Spanish and English, about the European projects led by the joint entity and in which it participates as a partner, reaching more than 29,000 subscribers, in its Spanish version, and more than 380, in its English version.

The effort of the Fundación Laboral to place the Spanish construction sector at the forefront of Europe is shown by the 53 European projects carried out since 2006: 22 as leader (seven in progress and 15 completed) and 31 as a partner (12 in progress and 19 completed), together with 164 partnership institutions from 30 countries. And it continues to be involved in the main international networks related to training and to the European construction.

To learn more about all the European initiatives of Fundación Laboral de la Construcción, the first edition of the International Projects Dossier 2019 is also available, in the Projects section of the corporative website.