Construction companies in EU are facing difficulties due to skilled labour shortage and the main reasons for this are out-of-date and/or inflexible VET systems.The project Skills Sector Alliances for Transfer of Knowledge and Skills of VET Workforce in Construction – SKILLCO was a 39-project-months international project for addressing skills gaps in the construction industry in EU in an innovative way. Its consortium of 8 project partners involved social partner organisations and VET providers from Germany, Hungary and Slovenia, as well as FIEC (the EU umbrella organisation for employers in the construction industry). The project website: www.skillco.euSectoral skills issues addressed:1.MAIN FOCUS: Vocational skills: greens skills, OSH, literacy, numeracy related to 4th EQF construction profiles, using a practical example (the SKILLCO House) learning units and learning material have been developed for the four identified and selected key skill gaps, namely:a.Literacy (Plan reading and time scheduling of the SKILLCO House)b.Numerical literacy (Construction cost calculations for the SKILLCO House)c.Occupational health and safety - OSH (Prevention of musculoskeletal disorders for construction workers)d.Green skills (Reuse and recycling of construction and demolition waste from buildings and their proper handling on the example of the SKILLCO House).2.PARTIAL FOCUS: Digitals skills (related to our newly developed, publicly available mobile app - SKILLgAPP) use and specific IT programmes/tools in literacy and numeracy modules)3.PARTIAL FOCUS: Vanishing (traditional) craft skills (typical for participating regions), We have also identified a few vanishing construction skills while working on the ground in the three countries. We have agreed to select two such skills that are common in all the participating countries and which we believe are valuable and deserve to be documented and remembered, especially in the light of the emerging professional needs for green skills. These are:a.Building a thatched roof (traditional skill common in Hungary and neighbouring countries)b.Making a wooden connection without metal screws or nails (to be able to build a farm structure, hayrack, in Slovenia and to build Traditional old German houses with timber framing).THE KEY PROJECT OUTPUT:Our mobile application SKILLgAPP is designed as an open source, a free mobile application, available for Android and Apple phones. It is a publicly available online educational resource and a digital learning platform for teachers and learners, with the OER feature. We followed that concept recommended by OECD and many other EU organisations. Instructions for using SKILLgAPP are available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPxUJAMR4HYMain results: 1.MAIN FOCUS ON SKILLS: The learning materials developed, divided into 2 modules: Module A (longer duration) for the common curriculum learning units for pupils/trainees and Module B (shorter duration) for the training course for construction workers/employees. In this way both VET students and already employed workers will benefit from the results. This will also foster trainee/worker mobility since these learning units and material can be incorporated/adapted on the EU level (Germany presenting the western EU countries and Hungary presenting the eastern part of EU).2.PARTIAL FOCUS ON SKILLS: Like the identified skill gaps the two vanishing skills have been described in detail and for each of them photographs, a video and a curriculum learning unit have also been made.

BACKGROUNDPaintingSkillsAcademy (PSA) is based on needs for the painting trade:1) VET must become more attractive to young people, more young people need to be won for crafts.2) Lack of knowledge, skills and competences inevitably lead to poor processing of orders and to economic damage.3) VET in the European context is underdeveloped, however, quality or flawless execution is important in all countries. PSA develops products for the painting trade and shows how to use them in other sectors.OBJECTIVESThe PaintingSkillsAcademy creates a structure for basic and further training for the European painting trade, which uses jointly defined qualification standards and sample curricula as a basis and makes target group-specific offers via the partners involved in the Academy. The Academy is implemented under the aegis of the European umbrella organization UNIEP.IMPLEMENTATIONThe path to the academy goes through the description of quality standards and units of learning outcomes for the painting trade at levels 1-6 of the European Qualifications Framework, design of curricula that make a statement on HOW the learning outcomes described above can be acquired, recognition of prior learning and competence assessment mechanisms, the development of a system of target-group specific training offers until a business case and roadmap for the operation after the funding.RESULTS- “Real” comparability of the competencies required and the skills that can be acquired in the individual countries of the project partner countries- No European lowest common denominator, but real transparency- Detailed documents from WP3 and WP4 enable the acquisition of skills that are precisely tailored to the job market- Course system (time and place independence)- Foundation of a self-sustaining academy for the painting trade on a European level