Building Competences for Reuse
Students at the Nordic vocational schools are being strengthened at building with reused materials with the new educational course Skills4Reuse. Through education and knowledge on sustainable principles and practical skills, the competences for reuse in the construction sector are being elevated with the next generation of construction workers.
Presenting Skills4Reuse at HÅNDVÆRK Festival
At the new festival HÅNDVÆRK, Nordic Sustainable Construction gave a sneak peek at the content of the new educational material Skills4Reuse together with Videncenter for Håndværk og Bæredygtighed (Knowledge Center for Handcraft and Sustainability). HÅNDVÆRK is a festival for construction skills, sustainability and building materials, that was held for the first time on January 24th and 25th 2024.
“We need the students to build arguments and have an opinion on sustainability and reuse” said Jakob Sonny Jakobsen from Videncenter for Håndværk og Bæredygtighed (Knowledge Center for Handcraft and Sustainability), who is part of the team behind Skills4Reuse. “And we need to make it easy for the teachers to implement sustainability in their curriculum”.
At the festival was a wide variety of actors from across the construction value chain. Some of the voices came from young students, who pointed at a lack of relevant sustainability education at the vocational schools and demanded action.
During the presentation of Skills4Reuse, Head of Secretariat at Nordic Sustainable Construction Helle Redder Momsen underlined, that there is a Nordic focus on reuse and resource efficiency in the construction sector. She referred to the Nordic Ministerial Declaration from 2023, that states that the Nordic ministers “recognise the potential in preserving and developing existing building stock as a contribution to reduced emissions”.
Participating in the festival confirmed the need for qualified skills and educational focus on sustainability and reuse.
Introduction to Sustainability and Practical Skills
Skills4Reuse will be divided into two courses. The first course is a general introduction to principles within sustainability. Here, the students will gain knowledge about terms such as consumption, climate, CO2 emissions, production, Life Cycle Assessments, biodiversity and Design for Disassembly.
The following course is targeted at students working with respectively wood and brick/tile. Here, the students will learn about the qualities and potentials for reuse of the specific materials. This part of the course will also involve practical exercises, where the students can try building with reused materials.
Skills4Reuse will include:
- Videos
- Quizzes
- Class debates
- Practical exercises
- Facts on reuse and sustainability
- Reading material
The education courses are supplemented with thorough guides for the teachers.
Skills4Reuse will be available in all Nordic languages as well as in English and will be free to use for all interested.
Part of a Larger Nordic Project
Skills4Reuse is part of a larger project Competences for Reuse in Construction that aims at improving the skills for building with reused building materials and the general knowledge of sustainable principles in the construction sector. Apart from the education course Skills4Reuse, the project has also resulted in a mapping of existing teaching materials on sustainability across the Nordic countries as well as an overview of the possibilities and barriers in the existing regulation in the field
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