Proposals submitted under this topic should focus on only one of the two scopes below:

Scope A: Supporting operations of existing national skills platforms
For eligible countries where the national platform is already running, proposals should:

• continue to operate the national platform as a permanent structure gathering national experts from all relevant stakeholder organisations, including, but not limited to government authorities responsible for education and energy, professional chambers, education and training providers, trade unions, academia. The platform should focus on bringing to light the skills dimension of the clean energy transition to the relevant policy makers and decision-makers from the private sector, running regular working groups with relevant stakeholders focused on specific issues;
• implement the measures listed in the action plan of the 2030 national roadmap recently designed. There should be a specific focus on securing funding for the large-scale roll-out out of the needed qualification and training schemes, including those piloted by previous projects, with a view to achieve a measurable impact on the annual training rate of professionals in the country;
• design a large-scale national communication and awareness raising campaign:
  • to promote the contribution of skilled professionals for the clean energy transition;
  • to make the case for the upskilling of energy efficiency professionals and;
  • to attract more people to energy efficiency professions, specifically for those occupations and skills where a gap has been identified by Member States in the national reports submitted under Article 28(6) EED and in the national roadmap and action plan when appropriate.
• the campaign design and the focus on specific gaps and professions should be duly justified, including an explanation of the relevance and added value of the planned activities. The campaign should mobilise all relevant stakeholders, notably energy efficiency professionals, training providers, employment agencies and attract relevant profiles external to the energy sector, e.g. professionals from other sectors offering reskilling potential, as well as underrepresented groups such as women and youth, including students from vocational and higher education institutions;
• the campaign should be deployed both through online and onsite channels and activities that should be tailored to the specific target groups. As part of onsite activities, roadshows in dedicated cities should be organised.

Scope B: (Re)establishing national skills platforms
For other eligible countries not listed under Scope A, proposals should:

• (re)establish the national platform and secure involvement of key stakeholders. A good starting point could be the work supported under the Intelligent Energy Europe programme during which a first group of national stakeholders was mobilised, but this should be expanded, also considering other energy efficiency professions listed under Article 28(1) EED;
• the platform should operate as a permanent structure gathering national experts from all relevant stakeholder organisations, including, but not limited to government authorities responsible for education and energy, professional chambers, education and training providers, trade unions and academia;
• the platform should focus on the skills dimension of the clean energy transition and run regular thematic working groups with relevant stakeholders, focused on specific issues;
• carry out skills intelligence activities (including evaluation of the effectiveness of any previous national roadmap, market research, data collection, analysis of existing labour statistics and databases, targeted interviews with national stakeholders, participatory workshops, surveys…) to provide a comprehensive analysis of the national building, energy efficiency and education sectors, as well as a detailed mapping of the gaps in terms of workforce (occupations), skills and qualifications. The resulting ‘status quo analysis’ should cover initial education, vocational education as well as higher education;
• design a national roadmap to address the identified gaps and barriers. The national roadmap should notably include: a set of priority measures related to the various professions to meet the defined targets; an action plan including implementation timing for the identified measures; an identification of actors, resources and financing needed to drive the implementation; synergies with support mechanisms increasing the demand for skills in the energy efficiency sector, such as one-stopshops for homeowners or public procurement rules; measures and indicators to monitor the progress of the proposed activities;
• promote widely the results of the status quo analysis and the measures in the roadmap and make the necessary arrangements to pave the way for the roadmap’s implementation. Proposals should notably include activities ensuring the official endorsement of the roadmap by relevant national stakeholders, including public authorities;
• design a large-scale national communication and awareness raising campaign
  • to promote the contribution of skilled professionals for the clean energy transition;
  • to make the case for the upskilling of energy efficiency professionals and;
  • to attract more people to energy efficiency professions, specifically for those occupations and skills where a gap has been identified by Member States in the national reports submitted under the Article 28(6) EED and in the national roadmap and action plan developed, when appropriate.
• The campaign design and the focus on specific gaps and professions should be duly justified, including an explanation of the relevance and added value of the planned activities. The campaign should mobilise all relevant stakeholders, notably energy efficiency professionals, training providers, employment agencies and attract relevant profiles external to the energy sector, e.g. professionals from other sectors offering reskilling potential, as well as underrepresented groups such as women and youth, including students from vocational and higher education institutions.
• The campaign should be deployed both through online and onsite channels and activities that should be tailored to the specific target groups. As part of onsite activities, roadshows in dedicated cities should be organised.

Proposals should include a small share of activities to exchange with similar platforms across Europe; those exchanges will be coordinated by the Commission services.

Proposals should build on existing national initiatives in the field of training on skills for the clean energy transition, including those established by the BUILD UP Skills initiative and under the EU Pact for Skills. Close cooperation with the BUILD UP Skills Community of Practice (to be launched in 2025) should be maintained.

The focus should be on setting up an impactful national initiative, although one proposal may cover several eligible countries. Only one platform will eventually be supported in a given country.