The aim of this project is to improve education in timber construction starting from the apprentice level up to further training activities of professionals on a European level.Teaching and training methods need to be defined which are most suitable to master challenges on a national level considering the impact on an international level. In order to apply appropriate improvement measures more transparency is required concerning the different education systems, construction and building techniques, market situation and development and operating environment of companies, their size and business target.Providing more transparency in described areas will be the first goal of the project team which will be reached through extensive data survey.Based on the data acquisition teaching and training methods will be defined and their national and international long and short term effect will be evaluated. Great advantage during this project phase is the well balanced project team of representatives from countries with both well developed and underdeveloped education system. The combination between schools, associations and the industry will accelerate the solution finding process which will be conducted during project meetings and through communication via telephone, skype, email and a project website. During the third project phase strategies for the implementation of the defined teaching and training activities will be developed. Three exchange activities will support this process as well as project meetings and the aforementioned communication methods.In the final project phase the sustainability of the project will be ensured. Networking partners will be assigned who participate in future exchange programs. Reports summarizing the results of the data acquisition will be generated and published through the website. Goals of a possible follow-up project and the concept will be defined. The project team is comprised of representatives from the associations “Timber Construction Europe”, “EVOSZ” (Hungary), Holzbau Lëtzebuerg (Luxemburg), the VET schools KomZet Biberach (Germany) and Tiroler Fachberufsschule für Holztechnik (Austria) and the company Alppisalvos Oy (Finland).Silent partners such as Holzbau Schweiz, Technopark holding bv – Technopark (Netherlands), Copenhagen Technical college – KTS, NBvT- Nederlandse Branchevereniging voor de Timmerindustrie (Netherlands), Polish wood cluster (Cluster Czarna Woda), Finnish wood academy and the Hochschule für Forstwirtschaft Rottenburg will strengthen and the support the project team.Recent technical innovation concerning fire resistance and pre-fabrication has made timber become an attractive building material for a much larger construction market. This development has resulted in an increased demand of labor in the field and education standards requiring adjustment according to new construction methods and building types.Environmental goals set at the G7 summit (Germany, 2015) and the climate conference (France, 2015) to significantly reduce CO2-emissions and limiting global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius will further boost low-carbon and sustainable construction types like timber buildings hence increase the demand for professionals in the area.This project provides a concentrated approach which is required in order to master the comprehensive tasks.
The use of wood in the construction industry has continued to gain momentum in Europe in recent years. The prospects and development opportunities are promising and far from at their peak. At the same time, the associated challenges for companies and enterprises in the construction sector have risen sharply. This has reinforced the realisation that the future development of timber construction can only be mastered with a sufficient number of well-trained employees. Raising the level of training creates positive prospects in two ways: countries with high unemployment increase the proportion of highly qualified employees who make a valuable contribution to the national economy. At the same time, countries with high economic power and a shortage of skilled labour can offer promising employment opportunities to sufficiently trained workers from countries with weaker economic power and high unemployment. In order to offer companies, workers, educational institutions and associations in the timber construction sector better starting conditions for improving the opportunities for action and exploiting the opportunities for cooperation, it was necessary to carry out a comprehensive and transparent stocktaking of the background information on vocational education and training in timber construction, which had so far been insufficient, and to significantly expand the existing individual contacts with players in vocational education and training. This would create the necessary prerequisites for an expanded cooperation in the future on the basis of a European vocational training network in timber construction. The following project partners were involved in the implementation of the project: Timber Construction Europe, Luxembourg - Coordinator Berufsförderungswerk des Baden-Württembergischen Zimmererhandwerks, Germany Alppisalvos Oy, Finland Tyrolean vocational school for wood technology, Austria Épitési Vállakozók Országos Szakszövetsége (ÉVOSZ), Hungary Holzbau Letzebuerg Asbl, Luxembourg Associated Partner: Holzbau Switzerland The following main activities were carried out as part of the project: • Survey of the framework conditions for initial and continuing training in the carpentry trade • Comparison of educational systems and qualifications in European timber construction • Creation of structures for further education, promotion qualification and further education • Determination of the development of job descriptions and job profiles in the course of upgrading qualifications • Permeability of training systems • Competence fields and functions in timber construction companies in accordance with the entrepreneurial and economic requirements framework conditions • Inter-company training centres, training offers, training methods, • Lighting of exchange activities, international networks and partnerships • Future cooperation in a European vocational training Network • Follow-up project Achieved results and effect Based on a high degree of basic transparency of education systems in the countries of the European Union and individual associated countries, typologies and education clusters could be developed that provided initial information on general system differences as well as on the type and extent of knowledge, skills and competences imparted. For the first time it was possible to make a more precise inventory of timber construction in which countries vocational training in timber construction/carpentry takes place and which knowledge, skills and qualifications are imparted in the course of further and advanced training and which are available in the curricula and course offerings of vocational training centres. The determination of the permeability of the education system could be described in individual best-practice cases. The project also provided initial insights into the dynamics of the development of vocational education and training in countries that have not yet had regulated vocational education and training. The long-term benefit of the project is that it can be expected that cooperation for the further development of VET in European timber construction, projects for the systematic acquisition of skills and competences and educational cooperation will be strengthened through the exchange of teaching and training methods and measures for the horizontal mobility of trainees, long-term employees and teachers and trainers. The partner network of European vocational education and training in timber construction established in the course of the project work could make a lasting contribution to this.