Ireland's Trade Minister Mary Coughlan has announced a raft of new training programmes aimed at unemployed construction workers.

The new FÁS courses are designed to help those in construction convert or upgrade their skills set to take advantage of the new wave of green and clean-tech opportunities coming on-stream nationally.

Minister Coughlan said the Government is committed to providing assistance to those workers who have lost their jobs through increasing their skills levels.

"We will help those affected develop new skills sets that will allow them take advantage of opportunities in new emerging growth areas within the construction sector," she said.

"These include the installation of energy efficient and renewable technologies, together with compliance and energy rating work."

Gas safety and installation courses will be made available as will sustainable energy training, focusing on Solar Thermal, Heat-pump and Bio-mass boiler installations.

These courses aim to develop the necessary skills, knowledge and competence of plumbers, electricians, fitters and other suitably qualified construction workers to design, install and commission domestic solar hot water heating, bio-mass and heat-pump systems in a safe and competent manner.

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Building Energy Rating courses will also be offered to provide the necessary skills, knowledge and competencies to suitably qualified participants to produce Building Energy Rating Assessor (BER) labels and advisory reports for new and existing dwellings in accordance with current standards and regulations.

Smart/Intelligent Building Systems courses will provides qualified electricians or suitably qualified applicants with the skills, knowledge and competence to install, configure and test an intelligent building control system using KNX/EIB technology.

Insulation technologies and techniques courses will provides general construction trades persons with skills and knowledge in the areas of insulation materials, techniques and technologies, and provides plasterers with external wall rendering techniques for existing and new buildings.

The Minister said that plans were well advanced to further expand this initial offering of green and clean-tech construction sector courses with the following additional courses due to come on stream later this year:

Micro-Electricity Generation Wind Turbine and Photovoltaic Courses are being developed in close co-operation with Sustainable Energy Ireland, and will enable installers to safely install appropriate micro-generation equipment up to 11Kw 3 phase or 6Kw single phase in size, in line with the current requirements as defined by E.S.B. networks.

Passive House Building training will be aimed at construction workers and will provide the skills and knowledge to understand and use the technology associated with the passive house construction method/standard.

Ms Coughlan also said that, in addition, under the Skillnets Training Networks Programme a number of relevant training courses are currently provided to participants, including construction workers.

"The courses I am outlining today, together with those already in place and schemes such as the Redundant Apprentice Rotation Scheme, represent a substantive commitment on the part of this Government to assist those affected by the current downturn in the construction sector," added the Minister.

(PR/JM)