ETBI-News-Summer-2016-web

National Roll-Out of the Courses
The Train the Trainer Courses have already trained a number of eligible
trainers to deliver the FES course. This course is delivered by ITB and LIT as a
NFQ Level 7 award and further courses can be provided on demand.
The FES course is currently certified at NFQ Level 6 as part of a 2-module
programme - Certificate in Low-Energy Building Construction - and is accredited
at LIT, ITB and CIT (with Springboard option).
It is proposed to validate FES with a City and Guilds certification, enabling the
course to be facilitated throughout Ireland by a broad base of providers.
A number of ETB centres (Ballyfermot, DFEI, Dundalk and Tralee) have
approached QualiBuild and expressed interest in the FES course. Further ETBs
may also be interested in this proposal.
Secondary Schools have expressed an interest in providing the material and
content from the FES course as part of the Construction Studies at Leaving
Certificate level.
assessments and one-to-one posttraining
interviews with individual
participants and employers whose staff
attended training.
Feedback from the evaluation of the
pilots has been unanimously positive,
with consensus from participants that
such a course is a necessity for all
construction workers in Ireland as an
information-giving and awareness-raising
exercise.
National Roll-Out and
Support from ETBI and
SOLAS
Consider this: to facilitate over 60,000
workers to participate in the FES
course, 3,000 courses will need to be
delivered (assuming an optimum of
20 participants per class). If the FES
course is phased over three years, then
20 courses will need to be carried out
every week nationwide. A tall order, but
a necessity for the progression of the
construction industry. This emphasises
the importance of involving the ETBs,
as well as recognised private providers
such as Partel (Galway) or St Gobain
(Cavan) who participated in the pilot
scheme.
So what’s next?
The QualiBuild National Roll-Out is in its
final phase, providing recommendations
on roll-out of courses which consider
supporting measures, financial costs
and further training (CPD). Gathering
support from relevant bodies to
work together and agree on the best
approach to progress the roll-out of
these courses effectively is the final
step, and possibly the most important
step.
The groundwork has been completed,
now QualiBuild needs to be
implemented.
The National Roll-Out is to incorporate
not only the delivery of the
aforementioned courses but also
the establishment of a Construction
Workers Skills Register which will
record all training and skills achieved
by the individual. It is important to
encourage construction workers to
continue training and the improvement
of their knowledge on a regular basis
through CPD, as regulations and types
of technologies within the construction
industry are rapidly changing. The
number of workers employed in building
construction totals approximately
60,000 people. To date, there are few
registers for the individual worker and
those that exist are mainly limited to
the electrical, plumbing and heating
sectors, e.g. RECI, RGII.
It is anticipated that the Construction
Workers Skills Register for individual
workers will sit alongside existing
company registers run by CIF, SOLAS,
National Guild of Master Craftsmen,
etc, as well as established professional
registers such as RIAI, BER Assessors,
and so on. To assist in the development
of the register, a detailed review of
all of the registration bodies in the
construction industry in Ireland was
completed and a comparison matrix
created. The collaboration of all
sectors of the construction industry
was also seen as being important.
Hence, the QualiBuild project held six
workshops nationwide inviting workers
and professionals from within the
construction industry to share their
views.
The registration system development
is very much an integral part therefore
of not just the QualiBuild programme
but of the future of the Construction
Industry.
Qualibuild Partners
IRISH GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL
30 ETBI issue 3 – 2016 Section 1 | National and European Events