About the project
This project is led by SkillPlan, Canadian Building Trade Unions and Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, part of Climate Industry and Research Team (CIRT). It is funded by Canadian government's Employment and Social Development Canada: Union Training and Innovation Fund, $4.2 million, 2021–2025.
This project, Building it green: integrating climate literacy into the construction trades to prepare the construction workforce to better meet Canada’s climate change commitment, ensure that the construction workforce is equipped with the expertise necessary to deliver zero energy buildings. The objective is to investigate best practice examples of climate literacy in vocational education and training (VET) for trainees and the current construction workforce in different countries in Europe, including Britain, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland and Sweden. The focus is on construction occupations critical to low energy construction, including carpenters, insulators, plasterers, plumbers, and electricians. The cases are analysed to evaluate:
- How climate and energy literacy have been incorporated into curricula
- Whether and how occupational interfaces are addressed and interdisciplinary learning facilitated
- The extent to which curricula seek to develop competences such as communication, team-working and self-management
- The challenges and barriers to developing and delivering curricula
- The role of stakeholders, including trade unions, employers, colleges and municipalities, and the ways in which they collaborate in developing and delivering effective VET in zero carbon construction
The findings of the European research will be incorporated into the development of climate literacy in Canada and the outcomes will be disseminated and shared widely. They are expected to contribute to climate literacy development internationally and serve as a resource for training providers, unions and employers.
For further information about this programme see the Building Trades Canada website.
ProBE team
The ProBE team is responsible for the European research and consists of Linda Clarke and Melahat Sahin-Dikmen (University of Westminster) and Christopher Winch (King’s College London).
Contact
For further information, email:
- Professor Linda Clarke at [email protected]
- Dr Melahat Sahin-Dikmen at [email protected]
Output
Calvert, J., Clarke, C., Dionne, E., Price, V., Sahin-Dikmen, M., Bilodeau, P.L. (2023) Different approaches to embedding low energy construction and climate literacy into vocational education and training, in Climate Change and Work in the Construction Industry, Routledge.