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European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency
News article16 May 2023European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency1 min read

Bridging the skills gap in the building sector: BUILD UP Skills supports 2030 National Roadmaps in 14 EU countries

The European Commission’s initiative aims to identify and bridge the workforce and skill gaps in line with the EU Green Deal, the Renovation Wave Strategy, and the EU’s climate objectives.

Launch of the project in Ireland credit @Irish Green Building Council
Launch of the project in Ireland credit @Irish Green Building Council

The transformation towards a climate-neutral building stock will only be possible if the growing workforce shortage in several EU markets is tackled and if existing jobs are transformed to include green and circular skills, among others.  Within this context, there is a need for new job profiles to emerge, such as specialists in deep building renovation, installers for advanced technological solutions, or Building Information Modelling managers.

To that end, the European Commission’s BUILD UP Skills initiative is supporting 14 Member States to identify and bridge the workforce and skill gaps in line with the EU Green Deal, the Renovation Wave Strategy, and the EU’s climate objectives.

Since October 2022, leading actors in Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Spain have brought together stakeholders in the sector to work on skills gap analyses. This first phase of the projects is to be finalised in 2023, which is the European Year of Skills. Project partners met together in March to discuss the state of play of their work and to discuss on methodological approaches, challenges and solutions.

Stakeholders will then develop and endorse national roadmaps reflecting the new realities in the field to deliver on the ambitious climate and energy objectives in the sector. This includes skills development activities related to digital technologies, smart buildings, resource efficiency, circularity, integration of renewable energy technologies, heat pumps, and industrialised deep renovation.

The 18-month projects were selected and are funded following a call for proposals under the LIFE - Clean Energy Transition sub-programme, as part of the BUILD UP Skills initiative. 

Launched in 2011, the BUILD UP Skills initiative has been supporting the upskilling of building professionals across Europe, to deliver building renovations offering high-energy performance as well as new Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings. Further information about the initiative is available online. 

The projects complement activities under the Pact for Skills in construction as part of the European Skills Agenda, as well as the European Blueprint for sectoral cooperation in construction.