1 What is CENTER?
The Center represents a virtual organization which connects and brings project partners, civil society organizations (associations) and higher education institutions (components of the University of Zagreb) as well as other targeted groups in project, students and volunteers together in order to develop continuous professional development for green building.
The Center supports the implementation of the socially-useful learning (SUL) for green building, it supports the implementation of the project “Continuous Professional Development for Green Building” and it also supports project sustainability.
The Center’s acronym CPD4GB, stands for “CPD” (Continuous Professional Development) in the area of informal education and “GB” (Green Building).
By establishing the Center for supporting the implementation of the program, Activity 1.3 was carried out – Establishment and activity of the Center for supporting the program of socially-useful learning for green building within the Project element 1.
The Center will work in accordance with the methodology, after being identified in Activity 1.2 – Developing a methodology for socially useful learning program for green building.
The Center provides great visibility and realizes part of the project activities (Activity 5.1 – Promotion and Visibility, Project Element 5)
2 Why virtual CENTER?
Virtual Center enables simple multidisciplinary approach to solving problems by simple gathering of a large number of participants in interdisciplinary approach to learning.
The Center will enable the development of professional competences through the acquisition of the latest knowledge and skills that meet the needs of Croatian society and economy, and which are competitive on the European and world level.
The CPD4GB project has identified two innovative components that are important for the development of professional competences for green building: a socially useful learning (SUL) and learning programs for green building needs.
Why SUL? An innovative pedagogical approach to acquiring knowledge, skills and competences that develop and link the knowledge needed to address the needs of the society / local community in the learning process. The new way of learning requires student engagement not only through learning but also by addressing the specific task / problem of the community.
Why Green Building? Green building based on the principles of sustainable development simultaneously contributes to sustainable development as a whole. It needs to be environmentally
and socially acceptable and economically viable. In order to satisfy these conditions, a large number of different experts / specialists who are able to share their knowledge with this approach in a new way are needed. It is necessary that students acquire knowledge and skills through interdisciplinary educational programs in a way of being able to apply them quickly to multidisciplinary solution of specific problems.
3 How does CENTER work and what information does it provide?
At the beginning of the establishment of the Center, the user and partners will put basic information on the website, and files with information on the implementation of the project activities and materials for implementation of the SUL program will be submitted during the project. The files will be accessible to all interested as well as to potential program users, and separately only for project participants, students and volunteers (teaching materials and the like).
The project CPD4GB website contains information about the project, project content, project goals, sources of project funding, how the project meets the requirements of national and EU policies and strategic planning for the area of green building and sustainable development as a whole, as well as educational contents and the plan of the project (About the CPD4GB project).
The CPD4GB website also contains a list of partners on the project “Continuous Professional Development for Green Building”, with the information about partners relevant to the project (“USER AND PARTNERS”). The same link also contains information about the local community included in the project.
The Center will work in accordance with the methodology set out in Activity 1.2, which will define the objectives of the new informal educational program, the method of designing, evaluating and verifying the program, setting out the methodology for selecting teachers and attendees of the educational program, and how the monitoring and evaluation of the program will be conducted.
4 Where is the CENTER?
The center has no physical address but only a virtual one. The center is this central CPD4GB project website which is also intended for potential interested parties outside the project, and not just for the project participants.
The user and partners have the “CPD4GB project” links on their own websites. They link to this central CPD4GB project website.
In the project “Continuous Professional Development for Green Building”, “User” is the Croatian Engineering Association, HIS.
5 When will CENTER be active?
The Center was established and it will be operational and maintained with ongoing improvements, with the partners and stakeholders mentioned, throughout the duration of the project “Continuous Professional Development for Green Building” till February 19, 2020.
After that date it will continue to work updated based on the project results.
6 What is the CENTER’s added value?
By organizing the Center as a virtual organization, quick adjustment and quicker involvement of the interested civil society organizations as well as higher education institutions into an informal educational program of socially useful learning for green building is made possible.
All partners will have the same right to use the results of intellectual work (teaching and learning materials, SUL program, developed program methodology and other results) generated through the project implementation, ownership of the project results will be shared, which also implies the possibility of using the results for implementing the program within each of the partner organizations. Thus, further sustainability of development and dissemination of project results and the acquisition of practical knowledge and skills in the field of green building will be ensured in the future for a greater number of students and (young) experts.
At national level, the Center contributes to strengthening cooperation between universities, research centers and companies, etc. through the involvement of multiple components of the university and through the involvement of the local community.
7 CENTER in the future
In the future, The Center will include the associations and components of the University of Zagreb, which carry and develop the social and economic competencies needed for sustainable development and green building. It can also include components of other universities.
In the future, the Center will consist of the present project partners and new ones with competences to participate in socially useful learning programs designed to develop professional competences for green building with contents and ways to participate in the non-formal educational program. The partner list will be available on the website and will be maintained and updated at least once a year, or even more often if needed.
The center will eventually involve the engineers of the Croatian diaspora in the learning process, the ones who are increasingly involved in the Croatian economy, thus offering and adding value to it.
Curricula and teaching programs should be adapted and performed in English in order to allow the participation of young professionals from abroad in the future.
Criteria, for who and how is to conduct educational programs within the Center and how to “get to the list” and the web pages of the Center, will be established in the methodology at the end of the project, taking into an account the results after the project evaluation.
In the future, all information about the Center and informal educational programs will be published on the Center’s website, with access and the possibility of publishing its own content for all partners. Care of the Center is the concern of every partner within the Center, as well as the cost of maintaining the domain of the website.
Guidelines for the content of information that must be on the Center’s website will be established within the methodology development.
In the future, the Center will contribute to “strengthening cross-border co-operation” since an expansion to young professionals (domestic and foreign) is foreseen through the Center for the Continuous Professional Development for Green Building.