ARISE wins the Ufi VocTech Trust VocTech Future of Skills Award 2023!
ARISE wins the Ufi VocTech Trust VocTech Future of Skills Award 2023! 
The VocTech Future of Skills Award is a new competition to share and celebrate big, tech-enabled ideas of how changes to the UK skills system could transform the way adults get the skills they need for work.
Award entrants were asked to answer a single question:
"If you could make one change to the skills system to get more adults learning, what would it be?"
The judge considered that BelfastMET entry "the central idea underlining this entry is that all learning 'transactions' have a value associated. As new skills are developed, they can be 'cashed in' for accreditation. A universal value of micro-credentials helps learners, employers and training providers have a shared 'currency' to represent equivalence. The technology proposed is blockchain - which is mainstream, but appropriate.
The judges felt this was a provocative and bold vision for an innovative system that seeks to give greater learner agency, advance micro-credentialing and other flexible and modular forms of learning, and change the debate about the value of skills. They felt that it challenged thinking about the way skills are valued and the motivation and incentive for adults to learn. They believed it would provoke debate, elicit strong responses, and stimulate extensive engagement."
Reaching a Sustainable Built Environment: Our Analysis
We just published the Report: “European roadmap: BIM applied to energy performance”.
The report provides inputs to develop a roadmap to achieve the correct development of a workforce ready to face the challenges of climate changes. The report starts recalling the requirements already defined in the European directives dealing with energy performance, the use of renewable energy sources, and digitalisation. Then, starting from the outputs of the previous deliverables, the roadmap summarises the knowledge, the skills and the competences needed both on the demand side and the offer side to obtain more resilient buildings to climate change with a decreased use of natural resources.
The roadmaps intend to ensure that current and future stakeholders interested in increasing the competences in the energy and digital domains, guarantee that existing and future training materials are adequate and continuously adapt to change. The roadmaps start from an in-depth analysis of the status quo in the participating countries.
The roadmaps should allow any company, public administration, and individual to fill the gap of competences and take advantages of all innovative energy and digital technologies.
In all the partner countries there is legislation supporting both the use of renewable energy sources and the improvement of the energy performance. Digitalisation is not always compulsory, but there are many initiatives to increase the competences in this domain starting from the public tenders where the use of BIM is becoming required in many countries. Consequently, we expect a huge future increase in the demand of digital competences needed in all the supply chain.
To provide the basis for the development of national roadmaps we considered a matrix where we suggest the level of knowledge/competence of the different targets for each technology. Digitalisation should be considered an instrument and not a final goal and should be applied by any blue and white collar of the building supply chain during its whole life cycle.
The goals of the directive are the same in every country. However, some countries are a few steps ahead in its implementation. To ensure the achievement of the same level by all, it is essential to promote the implementation of new technologies on both the demand and the offer side.
Based on a survey circulated among the project partners, we can make some interesting assumptions.
There is a strong correlation between the quality of the national VET (Vocational, Educational and Training) and LLL (Life-Long-Learning) systems and the use of technologies related to energy performance in buildings. North European countries developed more reliable training systems, and as a consequence they also make a better use of RES and technologies for energy efficiency. There is a persistent need, in all countries, to facilitate the use of more innovative technologies, which are still rarely taught in formal training.
In the following two diagrams we can observe the level of implementation of the different technologies considering the average of the different countries.
The ARISE platform can provide the support needed to achieve a higher maturity level in any sector and for any target as it is based on micro-competences. Thanks to the platform, the new technologies can be introduced directly by their producers. They can use it as a mean to provide training materials to be able to design, install and maintain new equipment and/or materials that can improve the energy performance of buildings.
The implementation of digitalisation shows that the problem is more related to the lack of a full maturity on the demand side. Designers are usually ready to implement digitalisation as it facilitates their work, but if the demand of public administration and both public and private owners does not increase, it cannot be fully implemented in the supply chain. The consequence is that the owners cannot profit from the benefit of managing all the information linked to their assets in order to decrease the cost of management and maintenance.
In the following diagram we can observe the different levels of maturity as average of the situation in each of the partners’ countries.
If the constructors do not implement the model received by the designers with the information of the products and equipment used and installed, the owner gets only marginal benefit from the BIM model produced by the designer. Therefore, there is a strong need to increase the comprehension of the benefits introduced by the full implementation of BIM in the supply chain. This analysis is also useful for training program developers and providers, providing them with directions on how to profile their programs.
In this case too, the ARISE platform can be beneficial as the European chapters of buildingSMART international are working for an agreement aimed at increasing awareness of the benefits of BIM along all the supply chain using the training materials developed for the individual qualifications available for free to everyone.
For more information, download the Report here.
ARISE Survey on the support of the digitalisation of the built environment, public procurement and SMEs in construction
The aim of this survey is to collect, analyse and summarize information about national legal and regulatory frameworks for sustainable energy skills demand in procurement procedures for building projects, in different European countries
Sustainable energy skills, in the context of the survey, include energy efficiency and implementation of renewable energy sources in buildings.
This questionnaire has been created by the ARISE Project partner IECE North Macedonia, and will be completed by national stakeholders in project partner countries: the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal and North Macedonia, as well as in other countries included in project dissemination activities.
The survey consists of a mix of 15 multi-choice and open questions. Its completion will take about 15 minutes. The project team is aware that standard questions cannot capture the full complexity of the subject topic. Therefore, respondents are encouraged to provide additional comments to explain the situation related to their country. The research team will consider the comments and statements for further analysis and establishment of findings.
The provided answers will be used to develop the ARISE project report D7.4 Overview of best practices in market recognition of skills, which will be public and available on the project web site in September 2023.
GDPR provisions will be respected for survey participants who decide to share their name and email address.
On behalf of the survey lead organization, IECE North Macedonia and the ARISE team, thank you in advance for your contribution.
Survey link:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1RZLzT01R-ead89t14La07x7cbrbPpuhL4d3_MpiI_jk/edit?pli=1
ARISE Video Series
Video 1: How ARISE platform allows learner to reach higher competences levels step by step.
How ARISE platform allows learner to reach higher competences levels step by step - YouTube
Video 2: How ARISE addresses the problem of a shortage of competences in the Building sector.
How ARISE addresses the problem of shortage of competences in the building sector - YouTube
Video 3: ARISE promoting the certification of competences through blockchain.
ARISE promoting the certification of competences through blockchain - YouTube
ARISE Training at the Portuguese Order of Architects
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Building Up Conversations
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ARISE Series of Technical Articles, 'Digitalisation of the Built Environment'.
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ARISE presentation at Portuguese Order of Architects
The event will take place online on July 18, 2023, at 11:00 AM (GMT). The event will be in Portuguese and will address ARISE Training and Recognition of Professional Skills in Digitalization, BIM, and digital tools as a working methodology to improve energy efficiency in the Built Environment.
Register here.
Innovative approaches to upskilling the building workforce
ARISE was present at the European Sustainable Week 2023, as one of the best practices for upskilling and reskilling construction workers, craftspeople, and professionals. Mr. Jan Cromwijk, a project partner, talked about ARISE Digital Skill Assessment tool as part of the BUILDUP skill advisor app. The tool offers companies and individuals a comprehensive overview of the current skills and the required skills to improve their competence in the field of energy-efficient and Building Information Modelling (BIM).
Video here.
BUILDUP skill advisor app Android, Apple
ARISE Newsletter 3
The third ARISE Newsletter contains an update on the latest results from the EU digital construction project. Read all here:
ARISE project 3nd Newsletter (mailchi.mp)