50—Energy Efficiency in Retrofitting a European Project for Training on Renewable Energy Solutions (REE_TROFIT)

Abstract

REE_TROFIT (www.reetrofit.eu) project (founded by the EU Commission in the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) program) aims to contribute to solve the shortage of local qualified and accredited retrofitting experts, as foreseen in the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and its recast—and as indicated by various European countries in an assessment by the European Commission (EC)—for increasing the energy performance of the existing building stock. REE_TROFIT will use the in-house know-how and experiences of participants in carrying out vocational courses on innovative eco-building technologies. REE_TROFIT project defines best practices for institutionalization and implementation of vocational courses on renewable energy (RE) solutions and energy efficiency (EE) in retrofitting, setting up, and implementing a large-scale educational scheme and by fostering exchange of knowledge and best practices among stakeholders.

One of the major milestones of REE_TROFIT project is to raise awareness in the regional, national, and European policy-makers for the full implementation of the EPBD and its recasts. Additionally, during its lifespan, it intends to define an exploitation strategy for assuring the sustainability of training beyond the project duration and increases the local retrofitting markets.

The REE_TROFIT (newsletters: http://www.reetrofit.eu/content.php?p=nlt) training scheme is founded on an innovative educational model specifically targeted for the building professionals; the adopting REE_TROFIT training model offers the following attractive features:

Flexibility: is applicable in contexts with different regulatory frameworks: climate, landscape restrictions, qualification levels of learners, etc.

Transferability: is capable of responding to local training needs through methodologies and tools transferable at European level.

Innovation: is accessible, affordable, and capable of overcoming the problems encountered during the previous training program experimented in the partnering countries.

Modularity: offers different training programs which are composed of independent, closed, domain-specific modules that may be activated according to the different training needs.

Brevity: offers training courses with a short duration, which are decomposed in shorter training tracks in order to ease the attendance of the targeted professionals.

Plurality: different training methods, tools, and media might be used in the training process in order to consider the needs of the trainees and to guarantee effectiveness.