We place a lot of emphasis in the Home Performance Index on skills. You simply cannot get quality low energy homes if the designers and construction staff on the project are not skilled to deliver. That is why the Irish Green Building Council teamed up with Limerick, Dublin and Blanchardstown Institutes of technology to develop accredited Foundation Energy Skills courses for construction workers. We also set up the Construction Workers Skills Register in 2016 as the place for home builders to find the right staff and sub contractors.
In the Home Performance Index we require the home builder to on the CIRI register, this ensures that at least the main contractor is required to upskill. Beyond this we measure the contractor by their commitment to upskilling the construction workers on the site. This applies not only to the home builder, but to the subcontractors. Not much use having a great team, if the window sub contractor does not install the windows properly, or the electrician and plumber don’t understand the basics of energy efficiency.
We have already trained 200 workers in the first phase during 2015 and 2016, and are now rolling this out right across the country, starting in Galway next week. We are a little tired of hearing home builders say that they are too busy to upskill their workers. Sorry if you don’t have time to upskill, perhaps you should’nt be building homes.
Register here for Foundation Energy Skills.
Any construction workers completing the Foundation energy skills are eligible to be entered on the Construction Workers Skills Register. We want all the trades to get on a path to continual up skilling.
After all you deserve the best from your home, but home buyers you need to demand a quality product too.