In the course of the SEEtheSkills project, we executed two surveys on the EE-skills: one for individuals and one for companies that are working in the field of Energy Efficiency, either in new construction, in the refurbishment of inefficient buildings, or in sustaining efficiency of already energy-efficient buildings. At the time of writing of this brief report well over 400 feedbacks were gathered through various channels from partner countries, covering well-distributed representatives from the industry. The survey was designed to expose entropic information through a minimal set of questions with logical inter-dependencies related to the basic profiling, various aspects of the existing status of EE-skills, their development, use, and also gaps in the upskilling of the
sector. We briefly present only one part of the results, which addresses the three high-level goals of the survey. The goal was to test the hypothesis demarcated with 3V – below described Visibility, Validation, and Value of the EE-skills.
Visibility. The visibility test revealed that less than 25 % of individuals and companies have publicly listed EE-skills. Thus, giving a strong confirmation of the assumption that EE-skills are not even visible. Out of 25 % of individuals – that have their skills publicly listed – only 47 % have their skills published by
adequately credible institutions, such as certification authorities, credible training providers or well recognized manufacturers. 40 % just publish their skills on social media, eg Linkedin, or on the employer’s web site.
Validation. Only 30 % of the respondents have their EE-skills certified, which means that RPL (Recognition of Pervious Learning) could address a plethora of currently unrecognised, yet valued skills. Namely, over 80 % of those individuals who already obtained their certificates through esteemed professional organisations (e.g., communities of practices, state chambers or professional associations) do not have officially validated achievements. This stands for both, individuals and companies, respectively.
Value. Less than 50 % of respondents use EE-skills to win new jobs. However, one would expect that the main value of recognized EE-skills would be to qualify for all tenders and/or to expose valued skills to the labour market. This reveals two important sides, 1st the demand side has no credible one-stop
point to refer to in a case of need for specific EEskills, and 2nd there may be fields for which the training and corresponding certificates are not available or accessible to the applicable workforce and companies.
Regarding the current gaps: interestingly, both surveys, for individuals and for companies, revealed high demand for training on “Coordination, Collaboration, and Cross-Craft” and for the “Use of BIM and Digitalisation on the Construction site”. More in articles to be published in relevant publications.
Reported by prof. Tomo Cerovsek, University of Ljubljana