Irish energy consultancy 2eva is set to run a two-day professional training course for air tightness testers this spring, aimed at both newcomers to the discipline and experienced practitioners looking to formalise their skills, as well as timed to meet what the company sees as growing demand for qualified testers in Ireland.

Irish construction professionals seeking to upskill in sustainability can avail of 80% grants – through short courses on a wide range of subjects linked to energy efficiency, the circular economy and digital skills for sustainable building.

The ever-tightening ambitions to integrate sustainability throughout Ireland’s new and existing buildings won’t be realised unless we can find smart, flexible ways to upskill the industry. Lis O’Brien of Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) explains how Digital Academy for Sustainable Built Environment (DASBE) has it cracked.

A new online hub aimed at upskilling the construction sector is now live.

The National Construction Training Centre in County Laois is aiming to meet the challenge of training the huge number of skilled workers needed for Ireland’s planned housebuilding and deep retrofitting programmes.

Following its commitment to retrofit one quarter of dwellings in the country by 2030, the Irish government has now announced the establishment of four new centres of excellence for retrofit training, building on the training approach developed to help the industry meet the NZEB standard for new buildings. Workers from state-owned company Bord na Móna are among the first to undergo training as the company transitions out of peat extraction.

The Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board (WWETB), one the country’s leading providers of practical construction training for nearly zero energy building (NZEB), has moved most of its NZEB training courses online to facilitate critical upskilling during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Heating technology manufacturer Grant has launched its new eLearning Academy for those working in the plumbing and heating, architectural and construction sectors in Ireland.

All of the recordings from the recent Energy Efficient Building Seminar series are now available to watch on Partel’s YouTube channel. 

Leading passive house expert Robert (Bob) Ryan is now offering certification, consultancy and training once again through his company, Earth Cycle Technologies, after a year-long career break.

Over the past couple of months, the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) has been focusing on helping those in the industry to upskill during the lockdown.

Saint-Gobain Technical Academy has announced the launch of its new online academy, which the company says will “continue its commitment to equipping building professionals with key knowledge about the sustainable building agenda as well as the vital skills needed to deliver it”.

The Saint-Gobain Ireland Technical Academy is adding to its existing training portfolio by launching a series of free nZEB modular courses. Starting this July, these innovative nZEB courses will offer those working in construction in Ireland a chance to upskill, free of charge, in an increasingly regulated area of the construction industry.

Ecological Building Systems will host an event in London on Thursday 11 May, titled Insulating & Achieving Airtightness with Cross Laminated Timber.

The AECB (Association for Environment Conscious Building) has invested over five years of extensive research to put together a unique online advanced retrofit training course, which brings together a wealth of knowledge on low energy retrofit and methodology.

Although full passive house training is regarded as the best way to gain an in-depth understanding of all aspects of passive house design, some construction professionals may not have the time or resources to be able to attend the typical two week passive house course. 

Ecological Building Systems has updated its Irish training programme for the autumn and winter season. Along with its award winning airtightness installer training, the company will launch a new course titled Low Energy Retrofits. To coincide with this Ecological will be also hold a Retrofit Insulation Masterclass on the 25 and 27 October.  

In this blog post, Devyn Olsen-Sawyer of the Irish Green Building Council reviews Ireland's recently complete QualiBuild programme, which upskilled Irish construction workers in low energy building techniques.

Passive house building envelope specialist training is now available at Ecological Building Systems, complementing the array of award-winning training courses Ecological have been delivering for almost 15 years now 

The AECB, the Association for Environment Conscious Building, is hosting a number of passive house courses this spring – ranging from courses to become certified passive house designers to “bite size” training sessions for designers who wish to familiarise themselves with the standard.

The Passive House Academy, in association with Saint-Gobain, will run a Passive House Tradesperson course on 21 and 22 October at the Saint-Gobain Technical Academy in Erith, Kent. The course will cover passive house design principles, U-value calculations, thermal bridging and airtightness, insulation materials, passive house glazing, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery systems, and much more.

There is a great urgency, as Europe moves closer to the 2020 energy efficiency targets, to develop a skilled workforce that can work together to deliver low-energy projects. One EU initiative, Build Up Skills, has been designed to “stimulate the training of craftspeople and other on-site workers in the building sector on the topics of energy efficiency and renewable energy.”