Development of skills to construct energy efficient buildings

Project Objective, outcome and outputs

The overall country objective that the project contributes to achieve is: "The building stock in South Africa reduces CO2 emissions with 10% in the residential buildings and 20% in the public and commercial buildings by 2015 and that 1 million solar water heaters are installed in buildings by 2014".

The Project objective is: "South African houses and buildings are built in compliance with the best practice approved national standards for energy and use of solar water heaters".

The project will focus on the technical capacity and the technical capacity barrier removal for the adoption and implementation of national building regulation that takes best practice energy efficiency into account such as SANS204/SANS 10400- X which is the South African standard that incorporates energy efficiency standards for the building sector. The actual writing of the standard is a process well taken care of by the South African Bureau of Standards in collaboration with external stakeholders such as relevant departments and the industry.

The project outcome is: "Local institutions offer certified training that facilitates the design, construction and inspection of building compliance with energy efficient building standards and installation of solar water heaters".

The project has the following outputs:

Training system for building in compliance with Regulation Part XA: Energy Efficiency in Buildings including approved unit standards, training material and assessment of learners developed and in use

With the indicators:

• Stakeholder mobilisation, consensus gathering and SGB established to guide " energy efficiency building" skills development
• Skills outcomes defined, prioritised and a plan for learning outcomes formulation in place
• Development of a skills programme and training material ( e-learning) drafted
• Testing of all skills projects including testing of training material
• Structure in place to roll-out skills programmes and to write the remaining skills programmes through use of national funding and national structures. This includes a "guide-book" for builder and workers.

Project activities:

The project activities will be implemented in an adaptive manner to best suite the reality and priorities in South Africa. The present description shall be understood as an overview and not necessarily a straight line of activities.

Activities: Training system for building in compliance with Regulations Part XA: Energy Efficiency in buildings which is supported by SANS 10400-XA including approved unit standards, training material and assessment of learners developed and in use.

The training in the building sector starts a year or two after initiation of the training of inspectors. The reason being, that the building industry will not adapt to new building requirements before such requirements are mandatory and the system to enforce compliance is (re)- activated. Therefore, once the training of inspector's starts, then it will be relevant to initiate development of educational unit standards and best practice training material. The activities will also include testing of the training with the first motivated trainers and builders primarily in and around the pilot municipalities selected as part of the "policy and monitoring" project. While the sector participants are eager to participate the lack of a driver has led to the current absence of structured training.

The project will as a first activity host meetings to establish a SGB to oversee and sign off on educational priorities, unit standards and training programmes to be developed. The activities will be hosted by the Master Builders Association, Kwa Zulu Natal, representing the industry in a sustainable manner. 

Hereafter the project will update the mapping of the skills needs. The skills need's will be assessed with the focus on the building sector to ensure compliance with Regulation Part XA: Energy Efficiency in Buildings which is supported by SANS 10400-XA. A prioritisation will be agreed based on which working groups will be established to write the educational unit standards and develop training material. The SDC input will in particular be directed to development of e-learning. The experience from the plumbing industry will be used to organize and develop the material. It is assumed that the e-learning will contribute to a faster transformation in the sector as compared to traditional classroom training. The tentative prioritisation based on the interviews conducted in June -July 2009 includes the following:

• "Energy efficient building design" - a short course for qualified architects and building designers aligned with the new standard. Such short course(s) are already being offered by various universities and additional funding is not foreseen.
• "Energy Efficient construction compliance with SANS10400A"- This is a short course for contractors, construction supervisors, contract managers, foreman and the owners of small construction enterprisers on the consequences of SANS10400X and compliance. This training is essential to optimize the transformation and ensure a broad understanding of what energy efficiency is and the low cost high cost options available. These short courses are to be designed first as "traditional training" and then converted into e-learning for mass rollout national wide via the Builders Association.
• "Sustainable minor works, building maintenance and handyman skills". General energy efficiency improvements can be made if there is a basic understanding of the importance of fitting windows and door in a frame without leakages and installing ceilings and insulation. Such maintenance will focus on new and existing buildings. There are many SMMEs in the sector and small contractors are often on a position to advise clients and effectively design small alterations and renovations.

 After prioritization the project will facilitate the writing of the unit standards and the training material. The unit standards will also be submitted to SAQA for registration by the CETA. This will facilitate that the training against these standards will qualify for funding by the CETA.

The training programmes will be tested on trial learners as well as with future trainers to have a broad feed-back. All material will be converted to e-learning and distributed and marketed through the Building Association to the training academies and training colleges. The project will also be instrumental in undertaking marketing of the unit standards and the training material via the energy efficiency information networks established by SALGA and DOE.

Victor Smith | Training Manager