Year 2006

Project Type Pilot Project, project with multiplying effect (2000-2006)

Status completed

Country DE-Germany

Marketing Text The target of the project was the implementation of an advanced vocational training measure offering a certified training for experts in preventive fire protection in housing stock and covering the entire European Union.

Summary The processing of the project included a partnership with nine partners from six countries. At the beginning information on the topic was gathered and stored in an internal database. The information was constantly sifted through and summarized in 14 chapters.

Based on these project results an e-learning platform was programmed and posted on the Internet (protected access for project partners only up to now under www.eefpbs.eu, contents mainly in English). During the final phase the advanced vocational training measure was tested up to its certifiability. It is available to advanced vocational training institutions.

Description The real estate stock of all kinds in the EU-area is estimated at up to a hundred million units. Apart from traffic the construction and operation of buildings represent the most comprehensive interference of man with natural processes. Our time essentially demands construction and real estate industries that are safe and as resource-efficient as possible. In order to maintain a high safety level the fire safety of buildings has to meet certain requirements. Whereas new buildings, depending on their type of use, have to fulfil the requirements made and monitored by the building supervision and insurances, the standards for the preventive structural fire protection in the housing stock are usually low. This is partially due to the requirements to be met by the structural fire protection that have been sharpened in the course of the last decades and to the adoption of technical compensation measures such as sprinklers and automatic fire detection systems. With respect to fire protection the built volumes are basically more critical than new buildings. Europe-wide the building activities meanwhile concentrate rather on the construction in housing stock than on the construction of new buildings.

The principal rule, however, is as follows: The older a building, the less calculable the fire outbreak and development. Fire compartments are changed by redevelopment and conversion. (Electric) installations might initiate a fire. The growing necessity to upgrade the house engineering of older buildings as well requires installations with additional fire risks. The mobile fire loads and the amounts of inflammable dust and dirt added increase. By means of structural or installation-specific measures the fire risk can be reduced considerably, which may, however, result in high costs due to exaggerated measures. Here expert knowledge is the key to useful measures at reasonable and fair prices.

The training of the planners is dominated by the fire protection planning, if at all, for new buildings. As to fire protection a considerable need for training and further education has been established Europe-wide in the last few years. What is lacking is a platform for the purpose of information and the exchange of experiences and of the advanced vocational training of construction experts who plan and build fire protection in housing stock.

Themes     Lifelong learning
    Continuous training
    Higher education
    Recognition, transparency, certification
    Open and distance learning

Sectors     Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities

Product Types open and distance learning
teaching material

Product information The main product is an e-learning system. It has been posted on the Internet (www.eefpbs.eu) with restricted access. The contents are almost exclusively written and saved in English. The system, however, allows users to switch between English and German. Thus future contents written in German can be posted there, which has already been done regarding some chapters (e. g. chapter 3 and chapter 12).

The e-learning system was generated by subdividing the contents as follows:
1. Specific fire risks in building stock
2. Type of use - building purpose
3. Escape and rescue routes
4. Performance of typical materials
5. Fire resistance of existing elements
6. Facades
7. Judicial base
8. Upgrade of passive fire protection
9. Active fire protection
10. Building services
11. Preservation of cultural heritage
12. Fire fighting
13. Organisational fire prevention
14. Fire protection planning
15. More to read
16. Keywords

The chapters 1 to 14 have been programmed as separate learning units. These learning units generally consist of four steps. Teaching units presented as audio-video presentations are the core of the e-learning system (step 1). They are complemented by saved PowerPoint presentations that run simultaneously with or independently of the video presentations (step 2). A long text version provides the possibility of self- instruction (step 3) and is supplemented by a summary (step 4). In addition to this, chapter 15 includes further sources of information in form of country-specific Internet links. In chapter 16 explanations on subject-specific keywords can be looked up in no time.

According to estimations the students will need five business days on average to take in the prepared learning contents.

Projecthomepage www.eefpbs.eu