European Training Standard

The PIRATE project brought together eighteen organisations from eight countries to write standards for training in the various earth building disciplines for workers who can already build and train others. ECVET Earth Building shows earth building is a process which can to be taught and assessed as a normal part of construction training, either on site or in a training environment.

There are already training standards for earth plasters, which you can download at the link above. There are also a lot of people working at all levels in earth building, from labourers to PhD's, but there is not system of assessment for skilled workers in earth structures and certainly not one which covers the European area. To allow people to train, and to travel to train and have valid qualifications which crosses borders is an ambitious task. But there are earth building and training organisations across Europe, each with their own national and regional situations. Finding the common ground between them takes time and a lot of discussion.

Earth Building UK and Ireland is the UK and Irelands partner in earth building training,  which co-ordinated the monolithic structures working group, which covers rammed earth and cob. This group covers training levels 3 and 4, skilled workers who can work alone at level 3 or direct others, at level 4. This group of workers is the heart of earth building and where we face the greatest shortage.

This is not a training manual or system, training cam be done 'on the job', in a technical college, in a workshop, or a combination of all three. Trainees might be working with a skilled team, or with a parent, may be self taught or transferring skills from other building practice. The point of the ECVET project was to allow assessment of workers however they were trained to ensure their understanding is at the same level as others in the same field.

The project has already brought an amazing amount of understanding about the different conditions in a number of different countries, those with 'living' traditions, those having to re-invent traditions or start from scratch. Each situation may bring different understanding and approach which helps the others. Networking between national organisations also brings co-operation which helps them all.

The three year project began in 2012 and ends in 2015, by which time the outputs will begin to be disseminated. Over time we should see trained workers, a new breed, coming into the field with different understanding and expectations than the generation which came before. this means both risks and opportunities to be faced and understood, but a group of people better placed to do so.

EBUKI have worked with the Construction Industry Training Board to change the National Occupational Standard (NOS) to bring it in line with the ECVET Earth Units of Learning Outcomes. The current NOS is in the Heritage Skills suite of standards and stays there but now allows new build as well as conservation skills. Not only that but the language of ECVET Earth, clay, rammed earth, cob and masonry have been brought in to facilitate changes in the  National Vocational Qualification, which was published in 2016.

Test assessments have been run in France, see image above, and Germany, so earth structures will have a structure of testing and assessment recognised by a wide group of organisations across 17 countries as others join the European MoU for earth training.