CT Train reached its final destination (hopefully not forever)

Our two years construction trainers training project ended on 30th of July. These two years were full of sharing knowledge, skills and best practices.

Trainers met two times in each country to learn some new practical or theoretical skills. The added value of the project was the opportunity of exchanges – during the meetings – between trainers and training planners on one hand and entrepreneurs and workers of the sector on the other hand along with visiting construction enterprises in each country to have a better understanding of the differences and how to learn from them.

Between the meetings the training materials were composed and translated to native languages. Look under results.

Now at the end of the project we can say that our trainers are more motivated, their knowledge about sustainable construction is updated, their English skills are better and they have lot of good new training material to provide better vocational training to students.

As said in heading – we reached to destination within this particular project but there is still lot of to do to rise the quality of vocational education through unifying the knowledge and skill of trainers. So thank you dear partners and lets meet in some other Train.

Last CT Train project workshop in Saaremaa

Last CT Train project workshop took place on 29th-30th of June in Saaremaa. The main topic was limestone since limestone is the national stone of Estonia, and this is evidenced by the uses of limestone that have hundreds of years of traditions, from buildings to tombstones. Limestone has proven itself as a durable construction material. Historical, the use of limestone and dolomite goes back over 700 years, as the first evidences of use of these materials originate from that long ago.

During our first project seminar in Florence we learned how to make fake marble and scraffito, now we learned what kind of local material we could use for this and what kind of possibilities we have if we want smth like marble but have not so much money…

We had two workshops – first about processing the dolomite in Revalstone which is with the longest natural stone processing traditions in Estonia and another one in Limex Ltd about producing (burning) lime products using traditional centuries-old technology which has practically not changed and ensured the production of quality lime for more than 50 years.

Read more under results.

Cutting the dolomite in Revalstone Ltd

Old lime kiln in Lümanda Lubjapark

Landscape design and gardening seminar in Latvia

From 3rd to 6th of June partners of CT Train Project met in Latvia. The seminar topic was Landscape design/construction and gardening” – Traditional and new technologies in landscape, gardening and green construction in Latvia.

Anita and team had made great work so all these four days were extremely busy, interesting, surprising and hot. Visiting vocational schools, palaces, landscape and urban design workshop, Latvian Open Air Ethnographic Museum, sculptor workshop Arteoforma, Art Academy and more and as the cherry on top of the cake – meeting in the most recognizable eco-village in Baltic states – Amatciems and it’s creator, the landscape architect Aivars Zvirbulis-Čiris.

Read more about each place under meeting minutes and find training material about fences and hedges under results.

Next meeting in June in Latvia

The preliminary program of the next CTTrain meeting in Latvia is uploaded here.

The meeting will take place ftom 3rd to 6th of June, 2014 in Madona and Riga regions.

Meeting in Florence vol 2

From April 15th to 17th 2014, the CT Train partners met again in Florence, Italy for their fourth official teacher training seminar. The partners involved were: MTU E-Umbrella (project coordinator) from Kuressaare, Estonia, Barkava Vocational Secondary School from Barkava, Latvia and Qualitas Association (Promozione e Sviluppo Progetti) from Florence, Italy. Construction teachers from each country participated in the meeting.

The main topic of the meeting was this time „sustainable construction“ – about using alternative energias and natural materials. The first morning of the meeting the partners visited the Lebbiano Residence Bio Resort. “Lebbiano Residence” is a sustainable resort located in the Scandicci hills only a few minutes away from Florence. The entire resort from the planning and location of the construction to the photovoltaic panels enables this structure to be 100% sustainable. Read more.

In  the afternoon project team had a visit and lecture of Claudio Scudeller in Elicona SAS, which is a commercial company that furnishes natural products for bio-architecture and restoration of historical buildings.

The lecture gave to the participants a general information about the different concepts that lay behind the ideas of bio-architecture, the differences between chemical and natural products and gave some examples of natural material that can be used in bio-architecture, such as: natural paintings and natural plasters

The morning of second seminar day found participants in PARCO SOL MAGGIORE – Toscana Energia Green – Navicelli (Pisa)

Tour of photovoltaic instillations hosted by Toscana Energia Green – a green energy company that works to improve production efficiency and eco sustainability in energy by using new technologies to create renewable energy. The participants visited the training laboratory and the photovoltaic park

Green Toscana Energia SpA realized in the city of Pisa the photovoltaic park “Sol Maggiore”. The the photovoltaic park was build inside a hydraulic containment basin, in order to take advantage of a piece of land that may not have other uses and not to waste the potential agricultural areas. The afternoon of the second day and day three was planned for Steering Committee meeting, experience exchange, working out the ideas for training materials and a lot more.

Next time all partners will meet again in Latvia from 4^th to 6^th of June!

Video: Natural stone in brickwork

COCOMPEUR won award in Latvia

COCOMPEUR project was awarded with quality award “Sparni 2013” by the Latvian State Education Development Agency in december.

Awards ceremony in Latvia

The agency evaluated 112 projects and awarded 10 nominations from schools, community organizations, universities, museums, municipalities that took place from 2009 to 2012.

The award was presented to the Latvian project partner Barkava Vocational Secondary School in the category of „Leonardo da Vinci partnership projects.”

Meeting in Florence

From September 25-26th, 2013, the CT Train partners met in Florence, Italy for their third official teacher training seminar. The partners involved were: MTU E-Umbrella (project coordinator) from Kuressaare, Estonia, Barkava Vocational Secondary School from Barkava, Latvia and Qualitas Association (Promozione e Sviluppo Progetti) from Florence, Italy. The Scuola Professionale Edile di Firenze (Vocational Construction School of Florence) was also involved as a silent partner. Construction teachers from each country participated in the meeting.

The meetings were held at the Antico Spedale del Bigallo in Bagno a Ripoli, just outside Florence. The topics of the meeting were Faux Marble and Sgraffito. The first morning of the meeting the partners attended a lecture lead by Simone Vettori, expert in restoration, and Stefania Salomone, architect specialized in restoration. Here the partners learned about architectural restoration in Italy and methodologies of decorated surfaces. They also learned about the techniques used for faux marble and sgraffito and saw examples of how these techniques are often used in Italy. After lunch the group got to see a live demonstration of how faux marble is prepared and they had the opportunity to create faux marble for themselves with the help of the restoration experts.

The second day the partners continued the workshop on faux marble and also worked on their own sgraffito. During the sgraffito workshop the steering committee met to discuss the next steps in the project and the deadlines for the work to be done. In the afternoon all partners visited the Villa della Petraia in Sesto Fiorentino where they were given a tour of the villa and had the chance to see real works of faux marble and sgraffito in a medici setting.

The meeting was a unique experience for the Estonian and Latvian partners as it gave them the possibility to learn about Italian restoration and to put themselves to the test and try faux marble and sgraffito for themselves. It was also a time to strengthen relationships between countries which is one of the strong points of this project.

Sgraffito tehnique in Florence

Next meeting, seminar and workshops of Leonardo da Vinci CT Train project will take place in Florence, Italy from 23rd to 26th of September

The topic is about sgraffito technique and restoration of it. Project coordinators meeting will take place on 24th and 25th of September.

CT Train project started

As a follow-up project of COCOMPEUR, a new construction sector project started in august 2012.

The project will continue unifying construction trainers level of competence with the partners from Estonia, Latvia and Italy.

First two meetings have taken place.

Next meeting will take place from 15th to 17th of May in Kuressaare, Estonia.