The INSTRUCT project is funded by Horizon 2020 to implement skill requirement for construction workers and to prove the close link between energy skills and the energy performance, as well as the effect of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The top-down and bottom-up activities of the project aim to overcome the current shortage of building skills and thereby creating building that are fully energy efficient.

In order to implement this change, INSTRUCT supports legislative changes that will require energy skills to be confirmed by certificates, as desired by instructors. In addition, the project aims to provide a range of services to support awareness-raising among owners and tenants of homes and buildings about the benefits of renewable energy skills, and among public authorities for the development of new legislative frameworks. The project will further raise awareness among stakeholders in the building value chain about environmental challenges, current and future sustainability scenarios and energy efficiency targets.

INSTRUCT collects quantitative and qualitative evidence confirming and reinforcing the correlation between skills and training and energy performance and quality. In addition, the creation of a set of tools and instruments should facilitate the mutual recognition of energy skills and qualifications in the construction sector. This will be complemented by real word demonstrations of five geographical European areas to show the usefulness and ease of use of the deployed instruments for recognition of energy skills and qualifications. Finally, the project wants to establish new legislative frameworks that allow for the use of skilled labour in public/private tenders.

The project adopts a step-by-step and participative approach, which involves five European regional Clusters. These will include eight demonstration activities. The set up of these demonstrations can be found here, together with an overview of the demonstration pilots.