Green Transition in Vocational Education and Training - promoting interdisciplinarity between networked VET-training programmes in the field of Building Service Engineering, with particular focus on sustainability competence.

The EU's plan for a green transition considers building systems technology to be a crucial factor in achieving the European Union's climate targets. The requirements for employees in this field of activity are similar throughout Europe. They must understand a building as a holistic and complex system. This means that skilled workers in traditional trades must work more closely together and enrich their skills with qualifications in areas that were previously outside their field of expertise. Employees in the fields of electrical engineering, supply engineering and construction engineering need to work together more closely on an interdisciplinary basis. It is necessary to develop sustainable decision-making skills with the aim of thinking and acting appropriately and sustainably in the workplace. Cross-disciplinary skills from the building, electrical and supply engineering professions, expanded to include ‘sustainable skills’, are becoming increasingly important for vocational training in the field of Building Service Engineering. We applied for the project in order to identify these skills, describe them in a way that is understandable throughout Europe, and develop concrete offerings for practical use in the classroom.

A key objective of the project was to align the skills and competences offered to trainees in initial vocational training in traditional skilled trades in the field of Building Service Engineering. with the necessary qualification requirements of the future by developing interdisciplinary learning modules. The project aims to support both trainees in the fields of electrical engineering, supply engineering and construction engineering, as well as the teachers who teach them, to work together more closely on an interdisciplinary basis and to develop sustainable practical skills. A key objective of the project was therefore to develop interdisciplinary learning modules in which trainees from different professions can learn with and from each other. To this end, the training content of existing traditional apprenticeship professions in the field of building technology was expanded to include qualification requirements from areas that were not previously part of the traditional field of activity. The project and its results thus took into account the requirements of networked building technology, which is a prerequisite for designing buildings to be energy-efficient and climate-neutral.

The project created two Europe-wide frameworks that were used to develop interdisciplinary learning modules for trainees. The first framework created in the project was an up-to-date, competence-oriented and Europe-wide description of the field of building systems technology. The second framework related to the specific requirements of ‘sustainability competence’. Two Europe-wide surveys were conducted for this purpose. In the survey, companies and businesses from all over Europe were able to contribute the qualifications they considered necessary from their operational practice. The results were summarised in the form of two competence matrices. The competence matrices are based on the so-called VQTS model (Vocational Qualification Transfer System), which was used to describe competence requirements in a way that is understandable throughout Europe. Based on the frameworks, learning modules for trainees and didactic-methodological guidelines for use were developed. To this end, the existing training profiles of the participating partner organisations were mapped within the matrix in order to identify opportunities for cooperation.

The following project results and findings were developed during the project: 1.) Two analyses of the results of a survey of companies across Europe on the qualifications currently required in the field of building systems technology throughout Europe. 2.) An up-to-date VQTS matrix for the field of Service Building Engineering which describes the skills in the cross-sectional area of building systems technology according to core work processes and steps in skills development. 3.) A competence matrix for sustainable thinking and acting in the field of core work processes in building systems technology. 4.) Mapping of the competence profiles of relevant training occupations of the participating project partners to identify overlaps. 5.) Four developed interdisciplinary learning modules between at least two occupations in initial vocational training. 6.) Didactic and methodological tips for teachers on how to use the learning modules to implement them in their own lessons.