The Project

Bus.Trainers. Building up green Skills for Trainers from the Construction industry is a project belonging to the 2016 call of the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union, within the Key Action 2 of Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices.

Project identification: 57 5829-EPP-I-20 16-1-ES-EPPKA2-SSA.
Duration: 36 months, from December 2016 to November 2019.
Budget: 968.645,00 €.
Coordinator: Fundación Laboral de la Construcción (Spain).
Partners: Confederación Nacional de la Construcción -CNC- (Spain), Institut de Robòtica i de Tecnologies de la Informació i de les Comunicacions -IRTIC- of the Univesitat de València -UV- (Spain), Associazione Nazionale de Costruttori Edili -Ance- (Italy), Ente per la Formazione e l’addestramento professionale nell’edilizia -Formedil- (Italy), Centro de Formação Profissional da Indústria da Construção Civil e Obras Públicas do Sul -Cenfic- (Portugal), Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia -LNEG- (Portugal), Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving -Cres- (Grece), The Small Enterprises’ Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants -IME GSEVEE- (Grece), Malta Intelligent Energy Management Agency -MIEMA- (Malta) and The Gozo Business Chamber -GBC- (Malta).

The objective of Bus.Trainers project is to increase competitiveness in the construction sector, through the promotion of skills and competencies in energy efficiency (EE) and renewable energy systems (RES) in Vocational Education and Training (VET) trainers, so that these trainers then transmit the new skills to the workers and future employees of the industry.

VET trainers play a crucial role in transferring knowledge to current and future workers in the sector. Based on European trends, the skills development of VET trainers in energy efficiency and renewable energy is the necessary advance to address the weak link between education and innovation in EE and RES in the sector.

By creating a network through the Bus.Trainers project, the main sectorial organizations of countries of the south of the European Union and the providers of education in Vocational Training create an alliance that will firmly commit to these new competences, which is expected to gradually involve other interested agents.

General objective and specific lines

The general objective of the project is to jointly develop a comprehensive training system for professional trainers in order to improve teaching in sustainable construction, through interconnected activities.

The approval of a new European sectorial qualification standard is sought, the Green VET Trainer in construction, following the methodology of the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (European Qualifications Framework -EQF-), oriented to learning outcomes and supported by the principles of the European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training -ECVET- and the European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training -Eqavet-).

Likewise, we want to validate a certification of competences through the ‘Green Tag’ accreditation, granted by the specific learning experience from Bus.Trainers or by previous learning, and a memorandum of understanding or multilateral agreement to promote mutual recognition in different EU member states.

During the project, a collaborative platform is developed to build community and support trainers in their continuous professional development (lifelong learning throughout life), through an open and innovative training course with new technologies for computers and mobile devices (app), available in five languages, and with other services and instruments of professional orientation, teaching repository, tutorials, etc.

The project pursues a positive impact on the VET providers, in order to improve its training portfolio; in VET apprentices and workers, who can receive up-to-date knowledge about EE and RES competences; in companies, which will have skilled and competitive workers; and in the rest of the industry and the end user -the citizen- who will recognize the added value of cooperation between industry agents and industry, in the design and execution of efficient programs.

Partnership meetings

  • Kick-off meeting: Madrid, December 15th and 16th, 2016.
  • Second meeting: Lisbon, May 18th and 19th, 2017.
  • Third meeting: Athens, November 6th and 7th, 2017.
  • Fourth meeting: Rome, April 12nd and 13rd, 2018.
  • Fifth meeting: Malta, November 9th and 10th, 2018.
  • Sixth meeting: Lisbon, February 7th and 8th, 2019.
  • Seventh meeting: Florence, May 8th and 9th, 2019.
  • Eighth meeting: Valencia, September 16th and 17th, 2019.
  • Ninth meeting: Rome.
  • Tenth meeting: Lisbon.