Cleantech Bulgaria, as a coordinator of the GREENER project is the leading partner of the first project outcome: the design of a common skills framework for professionals in circular/ strategic sustainable procurement. This first outcome consists of two main reports:
1st Report: Companies – skill gap to the GPP: emerging skills in administrative profiles
The GREENER consortium has developed a questionnaire for interviewing the main target groups in Italy, Belgium, Bulgaria and Spain. The Consortium developed a template to be used for the interviews and to be followed from all partners. The interviews started in May 2021 and were finished within the next four months.
The number of participants in the interviews were pre-defined in the project proposal – 14 interviews (3 per each partner country + 1 additional from Italy and Bulgaria) to Middle management and administrative profiles of companies, and 12 interviews (3 per each partner country) addressing public authorities (when applicable, staff involved in procurement processes).
The report includes an analysis of the main results of the surveys obtained until this moment. They can be briefly summarized as follow:
- difference of SMEs participation in public tenders could be related to knowledge of the process of tendering
- the environmental transition may be considered as a challenge or as a barrier for SMEs
- the preparation of public officials is considered by all as an important factor
- participating SMEs seem to believe that investing in HR skills is a driver for participating to public tenders
- non-participating SMEs prevail training as most important factor for pursuing environmental sustainability, whereas participating SMEs put more importance to LCA, EMSs and Ecolabels as tools.
The overall results obtained from the interviews and the surveys carried out in Belgium, Bulgaria, Italy and Spain about companies’ skills gap on GPP are the following:
- Lack of knowledge of the tendering process. The focus of the training oriented to SMEs nonparticipating in GPP should be updated with the basics of the procurement, terminology, procedures documents, etc.
- Environmental sustainability – for the SMEs it is essential to receive a training regarding tools and requirements. The summary of the survey gives a clear view that this “obstacle” is the basis of non-participating in GPP. Here comes the main aim of GREENER project to enrich the existing trainings with new knowledge according to the “green” requirements and to personalize it according to the companies’ needs.
- Investment in Human resources – subsequent of the above mentioned gaps, and a must for each SME or PA (no matter that in this case it is not considered as such an important factor) is the continuous training of the staff. Upskilling and reskilling provides higher quality and effectiveness of the working process, cost effectiveness etc.
If you want to know more, you can find the report here.
2nd report: ‘GPP Transnational Skills Framework for Middle management and administrative profiles in companies’
The GPP skills framework lists the range of skills needed to apply for tenders which include circular and green clauses. The skills are divided in 3 main areas: Procurement specific competencies, Soft Competencies and Green competencies.
This framework will be used as a base for the next step of the project: the GREENER Training Course – a modular training program adapted to company’s needs. Using this framework people from the target group can make self-assessment along a scale with 6 levels (Lack of knowledge; A1 – A2 Basic; B1 Pre-intermediate; B2 Intermediate; C1 Upper intermediate; C2 Advanced), picking out the level of knowledge, thus, identifying the skill gaps. After the assessment, the participant will get access to the appropriate module that covers the existing needs. You can find the report here.
