Builders, renovators, contractors and other stakeholders involved in the Irish construction industry are being invited to participate in a series of free energy workshops throughout the country this month.
The purpose of the workshops, entitled “Energy in Buildings: Preparing Construction Workers for the Future”, is to support the training and up-skilling of construction workers as part of wider efforts to create employment in the sector and to assist Ireland in achieving the EU 2020 energy efficiency targets. Under the National Energy Retrofit Programme (NERP), more than one million buildings nationwide must be retrofitted by 2020.
Build Up Skills Ireland (BUSI) Project is hosting the upcoming workshops as part of its development of a Roadmap for the upskilling and training of construction workers in Ireland.
The workshops take place in Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dundalk (16 October), Limerick Institute of Technology (19 October), Tower Hotel in Waterford(23 October), Maldron Hotel in Cork City (24 October), DIT Offices in Grangegorman, Dublin 7 (26 October) and the Clarion Hotel in Sligo (30 October). Each workshop takes place from 9.30am to 2.00pm.
BUSI Project coordinator Seamus Hoyne of L.I.T. and The Tipperary Energy Agency comments: “The Roadmap for Ireland will seek to outline actions that will provide construction workers with skills and knowledge necessary to build highly energy efficient buildings, while at the same time ensure their better career prospects inIrelandand abroad. To secure industry input into the Roadmap we are conducting a series of six consultation workshops aroundIreland. Discussions at these events will focus on overall strategy for fulfilling the training needs, more specific issues like courses’ content and qualifications and barriers for the implementation of the roadmap.”
He explains: “Energy use in buildings accounts for over 40% of total final energy consumption inIreland. The National Energy Retrofit Programme (NERP) sets out a target of 1 million Irish buildings to be retrofitted by 2020 in an effort to reduce the country’s total energy consumption by 20%. With the high contribution to energy savings expected from the retrofitting of existing dwellings, there is a need for competent contractors and supervisors to oversee works and technicians with an in-depth knowledge of heating system design, integration and control.”