Soft Skills for Hard Hats- Developing managerial skills for construction workers Erasmus Project

Project Title

Soft Skills for Hard Hats- Developing managerial skills for construction workers

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Open and distance learning; Overcoming skills mismatches (basic/transversal)

Project Summary

Following the construction industry skills audit by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) in 2011 one of conclusions that came out of the report was that soft skills such as leadership, team work and management skills are lacking within the industry. The EQAVET Working group on the quality assurance in adult learning also identified the importance of delivering soft skill as a vital quality dimension of VET programmes. The report also observed that teaching learning skills was more experience based and should be reinforced through a person’s lifetime.
Project coordinator, Coventry University, has been using the experiential learning approach when teaching soft skills for their construction courses students in the university’s simulation centre. Students are put in groups and placed in the real-life construction site office set up. Scenarios are played out using actors and the whole process is monitored by tutoring staff. The semi-immersive process fully utilises an experiential process.
The Soft Skills for Hard Hats (SSHH) project objective was to provide an online learning tool based on the real-life situations to complement and aid the teaching of soft skills in construction industry. The aim of the tool was to enhance VET training provisions in delivering key competences employers need as they progress in their career within the construction industry.
The project partnership consisted of 7 partners from 6 European countries:
United Kingdom: Coventry University (CU)(lead partner) – Higher education institution
Germany: Berufsförderungswerk der Bauindustrie NRW gGmbH (BFW-NRW) – VET provider
Italy: Centro Edile Andrea Palladio (CEAP) -VET provider
Bildungszentren des Baugewerbes e. V. (BZB) -VET provider
Netherlands: Open Universiteit Nederland (OUNL)- Higher Education institution
Spain: Fundación Laboral de la Construcción (FLC)- promoter of VET
Slovenia: Gospodarska Zbornica Slovenije (GZS)- Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia
Project partners brought a mixture of different experiences and competences necessary to deliver this project successfully in terms of construction knowledge, language and IT on-line learning skills .
The soft skills targeted in this project were defined as a result of research at the application stage and were: teamwork, communication, leadership and problem-solving.
The final output of the project is an open-access, online, interactive learning tool in five languages consisting of 5 scenarios for each defined soft skill. Every scenario was set up through 3 stages of progression dependant on learner’s multiple-choice decision at each stage. At the beginning of each scenario, and before using the tool the learner was presented with guidance notes related to the skill addressed in that scenario. At the end of the learner’s individual “journey” through the scenario written feedback was provided.

The online tool is aimed at key target audiences: apprentices in vocational training, apprentices in the workplace looking at management promotion, teachers and trainers involved in VET as a teaching tool for soft skills.
The significant impact of the project was already evident for the duration of the project through testing and dissemination activities that have provided high level of satisfaction by users. CU has also incorporated the tool as a part of the taught modules on undergraduate construction courses and its franchised courses worldwide. Other VET partners are intending to do so too. In addition, the impact of the project has been disseminated at academic conferences worldwide.
The future potential of the project output is extensive, ranging from widening the scope of languages in which the tool is available through to additional scenarios based on the same methodology. It also has potential in the methodology and model being used for the development of the scenarios in different subject areas.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 291864,13 Eur

Project Coordinator

COVENTRY UNIVERSITY & Country: UK

Project Partners

• CENTRO EDILE A. PALLADIO
• Bildungszentren des Baugewerbes
• Berufsförderungswerk der Bauindustrie NRW gGmbH
• OPEN UNIVERSITEIT NEDERLAND
• GOSPODARSKA ZBORNICA SLOVENIJE
• FUNDACION LABORAL DE LA CONSTRUCCION