Digitalization nowadays is not an option. The construction sector is among the most reticent to invest on innovation and digitalization, despite much of its players agree that digitalization will soon affect every process and despite a reduction of the productivity in these last years, also driven by the heavy economic crisis. However, this sector creates new jobs, drives economic growth, and provides solutions for social, climate and energy challenges. Investing on digitalization is a must to increase the productivity, reduce the public expenditures, whilst increasing the efficiency of the sector, both in terms of productivity and of attractiveness of private and public risk and debt capitals. The EU strongly addresses such challenges, by supporting among other things the introduction of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) as a key tool to help the construction sector and its SMEs digitalize. The project responds to the gap in skills between professionals and non-professionals involved in the operationalization of the BIM. Its specific objective is to improve the job quality of workers through increasing their digital skills, and consequently help promoting productivity and sustainability of the construction sector in Europe. In this sense, the project copes with the objectives of EUROPE2020 strategy and has a clear transnational vocation. It involves 2 types of direct participants: -VET Providers. 12 trainers will attend the Training of Trainers, representing partner organizations and other associated VET providers which are part of their networks. The aim is for them to learn how to transfer contents and methods embedded in the training modules to students and blue collar workers in the field of construction. -End users - students enrolled in VET training courses in the construction field and blue-collar workers. VET providers engaged in the project will involve the end users in the training and the testing of the app. Around 10 participants per country will be involved (tot: 50). The project revolves around the elaboration of three intellectual outputs: - Training modules aimed at supporting the introduction of a BIM – oriented mindset as well as technical skills on the building sites, to allow workers to cope with the compliant - BIM models. - An APP collecting the contents of training modules as a pedagogical tool - a sort of intuitive manual, with clear and ready – to – go instructions for simple and key actions that the worker might need to do on the building site. - An e-Guide including contents of the previous intellectual outputs, as well as the main indications on how to use the app. It will encompass the adjustments collected in the trial phase and be uploaded on the websites of the partners. All contents will be developed in the 5 languages of the project (IT, DE, EN, ES, SI), to facilitate the diffusion at European scale. A training of trainers (ToT) will be held, for VET trainers to learn contents and methods of courses they will hold once back. Both training modules and the APP will be tested in the countries covered by the project, in order to adjust them on the basis of the empirical evidence and feedbacks from users. METHODOLOGY - training modules will be elaborated based on need analysis carried out by project partners, their practical experience with students and blue collar workers on spot and the latter’s skills. This requires an attentive selection of theoretical concepts that will be conveyed to target groups as for what they do need in practical terms. - the core of ToT will be how to convey selected topics for an easy and functional understanding of BIM to non-specialized blue collar workers and students. - the drafting of the e-Guide will be pursued through a logical description of all phases of training modules’ elaboration, in order to make it easy for other European stakeholders to replicate their contents. - foreseeing a testing period to measure the impact of outputs on daily work will help the sharing of results on empirical grounds as well as adjustments before the project itself comes to an end, in order to introduce robust innovation in learning and working methods in construction Europe-wide. SHORT TERM RESULTS -a specific training course for the blue-collar workers of the building sector. -an app summarizing contents of the training, available on spot. -an e-guide collecting contents, methods and recommendations developed in response to feedback received from the workers after the testing. -Increased knowledge on key information regarding the construction life cycle. LONG TERM RESULTS -Better coordination and communication between actors involved in the design of the building and those working for its realization and mantainance. -Increased productivity and competitiveness of the construction sector. -Reduced digital skills gap between the actors in the field of construction. -Improved job opportunities for blue collar workers.
ICONS aims to improve the working quality in the construction sector by increasing the workers’ digital skills and BIM knowledge; and, consequently, to promote the productivity and sustainability of the construction sector in Europe. More specifically, the goal of the project is to create a tailor-made training course and App, in order to translate the highly technical and complex set of information that is contained in a BIM structure into a modality which can be read, understood and easily processed by non-professionals. ICONS’ action plan includes the consolidation of strategic and operational cooperation between actors within the construction sector, as well as the maximization of communication flow between designers, site managers and blue-collar workers.
The digitization process is rapidly changing the way professionals in the Building and Civil Engineering sector work, and it is to be expected that even the workflow of construction sites will be affected by this change in the short term. In the EU these new methodologies will be mandatory within a few years for all works related to public buildings, and even large private investors who have many buildings in their investment portfolio will probably use it once the benefits related to data-driven analysis and management become clear. Software related to the BIM process and the construction phase is growing rapidly, so many changes are expected to come in the future. Anyway, this training is a good starting point to make workers aware of what they will probably start to see on site in a few years: the constantly updated data provided by the applications will reduce time losses thanks to the direct connection between all the professionals, avoiding all the errors detected that a federated 3D model can avoid. The project responds to the gap in skills between professionals and non-professionals involved in the operationalization of the BIM. By improving the job quality of workers, it helps promoting productivity and sustainability of the construction sector in Europe. In this sense, the project copes with the objectives of EUROPE2020 and 2030 strategy and has a clear transnational vocation.