TRANSFORMING HABITS TO THINK ABOUT TRAINING: Example of the RenovUp transnational project

Extract from the forthcoming publication “EXPERIENCE AS TRANSFORMATION: For an epistemology of experience”. UNESCO and ICP (France) Authors: Florence Tardif-Bourgoin, University of Paris Nanterre, CREF Jérôme Mbiatong, UPEC, LIRTES

For the participants in the RenovUp project, the challenge is to “reverse” the usual ways of thinking about training through the objectives of action, which are the formative exploitation of learning in work situations and the analysis of work situations to improve the arrangements for the professionalisation of site managers and team leaders. The assumption was made by the two researchers involved in this field that the involvement of professionals in this project was likely to constitute a source of learning and innovation for the contributors involved (partner organisations in the RenovUp project, training centres and companies having participated in the reflections and experimental actions). Attention was paid to the moments of transformation in the account of the respective experiences according to the different functions occupied by the people interviewed (management, deputy management, director of studies, training, coordination, design) in the partner countries: how does involvement in an international educational project contribute to the professional development of its contributors? The field study highlights how entering the experience of others can be a personal step towards change, illustrating the collaboration in this particular project. Eight interviews were conducted with RenovUp project collaborators, including four in France and four abroad (three national project pilots and a researcher specialising in the development of vocational education).

Whatever their position in the project, the contributors unanimously shared the approach of using real-life situations to guide the revision of teaching models. Although this approach was initially a novelty for some, as emphasised by a regional director and the foreign contributors, who pointed out the unusual aspect of interaction with companies prior to the creation of a training project, most of them had nevertheless experienced this practice in previous European projects.

These habits have formed a common and shared foundation which has facilitated collaboration between the partners throughout the RenovUp project: “The simulations are there, they are given by the companies, we can see that there are recurring problems…Starting from a real situation…We know that it’s everyday stuff”. (French educational manager). According to the people we spoke to, the construction of the reference frameworks involves a great deal of work on “breaking down” recurring themes into training modules.

The habit of commitment can be linked to other experiences in the field of training, such as the fact of having been involved in writing certification situations as part of a national project on work-linked training (French educational manager) or of having participated in the creation of teaching and positioning tools to develop observation grids in real situations (national coordinator of the RenovUp project). According to the same co-ordinator, it can also be linked to non-teaching experiences such as organising technical activities to manage the project and conducting interviews with operators in the renovation sector.

Gathering needs based on actual activity means taking into account the local challenges of the training provided, from one region to another as well as from one country to another (French Regional Director) and, above all, it means having a good knowledge of the practices of trainers in order to support them in changing their practices (French Education Manager and French Regional Director in his capacity as a former CFA director): “Already work-linked training is disconnected, we need to reconnect the CFA with the company…”.

These issues and transformations relate to the specific national features of the political and legal context, the structuring of the sector and environmental standards: “In the first phase of RenovUp, we had to do a documentary search, analyse all the standards, legislation, all the changes that the European Union is putting in place to deal with climate change”. (National coordinator of the RenovUp project in his country).

The responsibilities and practices of trainers, site managers and team leaders are recurrent in the comments made by contributors when it comes to their perception of the situation.

Transforming Training Habits Tardif Bourgoin_ Mbiatong RenovUP Nov 2023 V3 Diffusion EN

Transformer les habitudes de formation Tardif Bourgoin_ Mbiatong RenovUP Nov 2023 V3 Diffusion FR

Communication materials

COMMUNICATION MATERIALS

Find here communication materials created throughout the project

Please find attached to this article the communication materials created throughout the project.

2023 – RenovUp flyer – English version

2023 – Flyer RenovUp – version française

2022 – Brochure RenovUp – French version

2022 – RenovUp Brochure – English version

2022 – RenovUp Brochure – versión española

2022 – RenovUp Brochure – Ελληνική έκδοση

2022 – RenovUp Brochure – versione italiana

2022 – RenovUp Brochure – Wersja polska

Results achieved

RESULTS ACHIEVED

Expected results

The project meets the expectations of small and medium-sized enterprises in terms of the evolution of the skills of their site managers and team leaders, specific to the renovation of buildings, in relation to the energy transition, occupational health and safety standards, new activities and new modes of organisation. It will thus complement work carried out in other recent transnational (Erasmus+) and national projects where the skills of site managers and team leaders in the construction sector in Europe have been addressed.

The following results have been achieved:

Systematisation of the skills assessment process on entry into the individualised training system;
Pragmatic and sustainable promotion of work-based learning in the training strategies and practices of the national networks of training organisations that participated in the project, even beyond the training courses designed and implemented for site foremen and team leaders for building renovation, in line with the expectations of companies on the one hand and the profile of potential beneficiaries on the other;
A new impetus to design and implement individualised and modular training courses, based on components such as training in work situations, training in training centres or distance learning, which can be integrated into a lifelong professionalization approach;
Sustainable enrichment of the training offer of the organisations involved in the project, enabling more companies to be attracted to training centres both as beneficiaries of this offer and as partners in the training process;
Systematisation of the approach to training trainers in the observation and analysis of work situations, enabling them to take them into account in training situations (beyond the training courses for site foremen and team leaders for building renovation);
Sustainable installation of formal recognition procedures for acquired skills;
Finally, to make up for the lack of skills sought by companies for their site foremen and team leaders working on building renovation sites on a long-term basis.

Thus, the project have not ultimately been limited to the design and implementation of a training system for site managers and team leaders for building renovation, but also gave a new impetus to the individualisation of career paths, the integration of work situations and the implementation of modular and multimodal training courses.

22. Flyer_RenovUP_HD_EN for Internet

21. Depliant_RenovUP_HD_FR pour Internet

04. RENOVUP St Herblain 15 Juin 2023 FR Séminaire de clôture

03. RENOVUP St Herblain 15 June 2023 EN Dissemination Event

00E. Présentation_RenovUp_Motion Picture FR

Main beneficiaries

MAIN BENEFICIARIES

Main beneficiaries

By designing well-profiled professionalization paths for site managers and team leaders, the project will respond, more particularly, to the expectations of small and medium-sized building renovation companies, as the needs mentioned above are the least satisfied in these companies in the countries of the partnership.

The observation of these activities in companies, carried out in all the countries of the partnership with appropriate methods and grids for identification and analysis, will make it possible to specify the capacities and knowledge on the acquisition of which the professionalisation system to be designed will have to be oriented. In order to identify the profiles of new entrants and experienced staff, a positioning system will be designed at transnational level. It will then be adapted to the context of each country in terms of the final architecture, steering, financing, etc. To meet the expectations of the target groups, the training to be designed will be modular and individualised. It will mainly take place in work situations (which enable the concrete activation of skills and knowledge so that they become competences).

The training centres will be responsible for identifying skills required, refining them if necessary, evaluating and validating them, in conjunction with formal recognition or certification bodies. The training envisaged may also include transnational components (learning abroad in work situations, organised within the framework of European programmes for mobility for training purposes, especially in the context of long training cycles).

Needs identified

MAIN BENEFICIARIES

Needs identified

The professional development paths of the targeted site managers and team leaders will have to take better account of the particularities of their professional activities, such as:

PROJECT OVERVIEW

RenovUp is a three-year project (2020-2023) co-financed by Erasmus+ funds in the amount of 413 987€ shared by the 5 partners during the project duration.

In order to professionalise site managers and team leaders in the specific management of building renovation sites, RenovUp has made it possible to evolve the concept of professional development for targeted audiences, more individualised and more based on the formative exploitation of the learners’ actual work situations. The partners also wanted the skills acquired to be clearly identifiable, and their recognition to be effective.

RenovUp results from an observation made by professionals in the construction industry: the current training facilities for site managers and team leaders do not take sufficiently account the specificities related to the renovation of buildings and its various constraints. There is a real need, confirmed by companies and professional federations in the partner countries, to reorient them in terms of objectives, content and methods of learning, in order to enable the targeted learners to strengthen their capacity to better understand the renovation as a whole, to foresee and plan the related specific interventions, to better communicate and convince in complex situations on these sites.

To achieve this objective of professionalization the targeted audiences in the countries of the partnership first, then beyond, 5 partners from 5 countries have come together to design a model of repository to meet the evolutions of these two functions, declinable in national schemes, consistent with the priorities, contexts and resources specific to each partner country.

This project brings together experienced and complementary partners in the design and implementation of professionalization schemes for managers, technicians and construction workers: 3 national and regional networks of vocational training (initial and continuing) in the building trades in France (CCCA-BTP), Italy (Formedil) and Spain (FLC Asturias), a recognised technological and pedagogical research organisation in Poland (Łukasiewicz ITE Network) and in Greece, a professional federation of the sector, also advisory body (Pedmede).

With 3 well-identified impacts, declinable at national levels, this project meets company expectations in terms of the skills development of the targeted audiences :

Real and measurable strengthening of education and professional partnerships established locally, regionally, nationally and at transnational level to meet the expectations of the enterprises concerned in a sustainable and satisfactory manner (especially SME) in terms of their site manager and team leader skills in building renovation;
Better integration of work situations training into individual professionalisation projects, creating lasting links between in-company training, vocational schools/training centres and e-learning;
Systematic integration of environmental and climate objectives, as well as constantly evolving S&H standards, into the management of work sites and teams on the work sites concerned.