First “Start and Improve Your Green Construction Business” (SIYGCB) Trainers trained

The Start and Improve Your Green Construction Business training is a green sectoral business development programme that aims to support emerging and established entrepreneurs that wish to engage in the green building construction sector. The SIYGCB has been developed in close collaboration with national and international stakeholders in Zambia and South Africa. A first group of future trainers were trained in the rationale and the use of the SIYCGB training modules.

News | 19 November 2014
The first “Start and Improve Your Green Construction Business” (SIYCGB) Training of Trainers seminar was conducted from 10 to 14 November in Johannesburg, South Africa. The training attracted 23 participants from Zambia, South Africa and Mozambique representing a wide range of stakeholders with a mandate to support the greening of the construction sector and promoting green entrepreneurship in their respective countries. The sector is steadily gaining ground in Southern Africa, notably due to an increased demand for affordable housing which is energy and cost efficient but also provides a healthy living environment.

Amongst the institutions represented were: the National Council for Construction (Zambia), The Copperbelt University (Zambia), the Central University of Technology and the University of the Free State as well as Coastal KZN College (South Africa). In addition, several BDS providers from Port Elisabeth, East London and Durban (South Africa) as well as Maputo (Mozambique) were present and will include the SIYGCB training programme in their service portfolio.


The currently available development tools rarely reach out and address the specific needs of future green entrepreneurs. The SIYGCB responds to these needs and bridges the knowledge and skills gaps among MSMEs to enter the green construction market. The 13 modules of the SIYGCB programme are tailor-made for the whole spectrum of entrepreneurs: from start-ups, to emerging and established entrepreneurs. They cover topics such as business management basics, tendering, pricing and costing, complying with legal requirements, marketing, management of resources and business support structures, but always from the perspective of a green construction business, or entrepreneur who wishes to gradually green his or her products and services.

Furthermore, the SIYGCB modules are designed to provide a paperless and hence environmentally friendly training environment, where participants, depending on their access to internet, work with digital interactive PDF’s and ePublications of the modules concerned. This innovation provides a richer and more engaging learning environment than traditional paper-based training settings. Furthermore, where connectivity allows for this, the SIYGCB can be used in combination with tablets and online learning platforms.

A distinct training module on “Introduction to Green Construction” forms the core of the SIYGCB training programme. It provides an in-depth understanding on the topic such as the green construction principles, green building materials and technologies and concepts such as Life Cycle Cost Assessment and Pay Back Time. Green construction is mainly presented as a business opportunity, while environmental and social benefits of “going green in contracting” are also emphasized as a possible comparative advantage for a green entrepreneur.

The development of the “Start and Improve Your Green Construction Business” is a joint collaboration between different ILO technical cooperation programmes , the Zambia Green Jobs Programme and the Sustainable Enterprise Development Facility in South Africa, the ILO Green Jobs Programme in Geneva and the International Training Centre in Turin. Trainings of entrepreneurs will start by rolling out the training programme beginning of 2015 in South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique.

The SIYGCB forms part of the wider “Start and Improve Your Business” family of training programmes with over 17,000 trainers and 4.5 million participants from over 100 countries that have been trained in SIYB.

For more information please contact:
ITC-ILO Turin:
Joel Alcocer, j.alcocer@itcilo.org

ILO Zambia:
Karl Pfeffer, pfeffer@ilo.org
Evans Lwanga, lwanga@ilo.org

ILO South Africa:
Valerie Flanagan, flanagan@ilo.org
Nico Westphal, westphal@ilo.org