The Netherlands urgently needs skilled professionals to make the built environment more sustainable and smarter, while the labour market struggles to keep pace with the accelerating energy and digitalization transitions. This is leading to skills shortages and persistent challenges in attracting and retaining talent. FUTURED aims to address these challenges by strengthening collaboration, skills development, and innovation among professionals in the built environment. 

Objective

FUTURED aims to develop transferable knowledge and actionable insights that help organisations and professionals adapt to future labour market developments associated with the twin transitions of energy and digitalization in the built environment. 

Within FUTURED, researchers collaborate closely with societal partners. The emphasis is on co-creation to ensure that outcomes are directly applicable in organisations, education, and policy contexts. 

Results

  • Future labour market scenarios 
  • Concrete actionable perspectives for organisations and professionals 
  • Policy recommendations on sustainable employability 
  • Adaptive lifelong learning strategy and programmes 
  • Strengthened collaboration between research, education and practice 

 

 

Approach

Through co-creation and futuring methods, the project will develop scenarios, tools, policy options, and training pathways that support a resilient and future-ready built environment workforce, while fostering a lifelong learning climate that endures beyond the project. 

Education impact

The project seeks to enable the built environment to attract, retain, and continuously develop a resilient and future-ready workforce that can advance the twin transitions of energy and digitalisation. The societal is twofold:  

  • Impact 1: Attracting and retaining a resilient, future-ready workforce that is empowered to advance the twin transitions in the BE.  
  • Impact 2: Creating a lifelong learning climate and continuous skills development to sustain the BE workforce and advance the twin transitions

 

HU researchers involved in the research

  • Xiao Peng
    • Senior lecturer
    • Research group: Organisations in Digital Transition
  • Quan Zhu
    • Researcher
    • Research group: Process Innovation and Information Systems
  • Machiel Bouwmans | Researcher | Research group Vocational Education
    Machiel Bouwmans
    • Researcher
    • Research group: Organisations in Digital Transition
  • Steven Havemans
    Steven Haveman
    • Associate professor
    • Research group: Organisations in Digital Transition
  • Nadia Bij de Vaate
    • Lecturer-researcher
    • Research group: Organisations in Digital Transition
  • Tara Vester
    Tara Vester
    • Researcher
    • Research group: Organisations in Digital Transition
  • Irene Jonkers
    • Senior lecturer
    • Research group: Organisations in Digital Transition
  • Lieke Nijdam
    • Researcher
    • Research groups: Marketing & Customer Experience, Organisations in Digital Transition

Related courses

Would you like to collaborate or do you have any questions?

Xiao Peng

  • Senior lecturer
  • Research group: Organisations in Digital Transition