FIEC Newsletter – 12 Απριλίου 2022

On 7 April, FIEC Vice-President, Joël Schons, spoke at the PES Network Stakeholder Conference 2022 – the network of national public services for employment – in a panel dedicated to “Building Resilience – Addressing Labour Market Shortages”, in specific economic sectors (i.e. the construction industry).Amongst other things, VP Schons pointed out that there is a widening gap between the perception of the construction industry by young people and what it really is. Indeed, with the green and digital transition, construction offers a great variety of career opportunities for people with very different profiles.

He also raised the fact that, for employers, it is difficult to compare the level of people’s skills between one Member State and another, which makes the mobility of the workforce even more difficult.

Finally, he highlighted the benefits of the Construction Blueprint EU-funded project, which aims at anticipating future skills’ needs in the sector, particularly in the fields of digitalisation, energy efficiency and in the circular economy.

On 6 April, the European Commission held the second meeting of the High Level Construction Forum aimed at “Co-creating a transition pathway for a resilient, greener and more digital construction ecosystem“. The meeting included the participation of several panelists from different EU Member States.Among the panelists were FIEC Vice-President Lubomir Katchamakov and ANCE (IT) Deputy Director-General Romain Bocognani. VP Katchamakov outlined the challenges in Eastern Europe in terms of achieving a resilient construction system. Some of these challenges included the rise in price of energy and raw materials and labour shortages, all of which have been exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. DG Bocognani, for his part, gave a presentation on the latest “Sustainability Guidelines for the Decarbonisation of the Construction Sector in Italy“.

FIEC’s French member federation, Fédération Nationale des Travaux Publics (FNTP) has launched a documentary series named ‘’Wonderworld’’, an ambitious action aimed at promoting the construction sector and its impact on the world.

The four episodes cast light on four great technological and human adventures. The videos – released in French by FNTP on its Website and YouTube channel – were presented with great success during the Forum of Public Works (Forum de Travaux Publics) held in Paris on 24 February 2022.

How to connect men when a volcanic geography separates them from one another? How to create roads when local climate allows to work only 6 months a year? What material should be invented to resist bad weather and respect the environment at the same time? This episode takes viewers on a discovery of Iceland, its landscapes, its inhabitants and their main challenges.