The transnational basic skills are crucial for employability across the European building sector. These basic skills have been filtered out of 13 countries’ own specific nationally-defined vocational requirements for the given qualification, and include a cross-section of social and technical key skills needed for entering the building sector which are relevant across the whole of Europe.
 
The process of determining the national vocational requirements and the corresponding areas of mutual convergence and agreement lasted many months, and many representatives of organisations were involved.
 
During this process of unearthing opinion and defining areas of mutual agreement, there were many different active participants in the so-called national ‘Pools of Competence’ (these ‘Pools of Competence’ are advisory committees, the members of which are representatives of politico-educational bodies such as national and regional employment agencies, social services, governmental bodies, training centres, construction companies, etc).
 
Although the vocational training situation initially appeared to be very different in each of the countries involved in the project, the degree of agreement that was reached with regard to the necessary basic qualification was astonishingly high. Differing national vocational requirements and attainment levels have been included, highlighted and commented on in the relevant sections, with the aim not only of documenting national differences, but also of stimulating further discussion. Differences should not be seen necessarily as difficulties, but instead should be seen as a chance to further develop vocational training systems on a national and transnational level.