For Green Careers Week, Garry Felgate, CEO of The MCS Foundation, examines some of the key challenges in developing the skills the heat pump sector needs:
The UK is going from strength to strength when it comes to heat pump installations. There have now been five consecutive years of record numbers of MCS-certified heat pump installations, with more than 40% growth last year alone.
To ensure this growth continues, it’s critical that the sector is supported in training highly-skilled workers across the country and can ensure the capacity exists for the 120,000+ heat pump jobs that MCS Foundation-supported research has shown we will need by 2035. To achieve this, we must first understand the existing skills base and gaps in training provision and understand what messages and factors can persuade heat pump installers to become the heat pump trainers who will shape the next generation.
The MCS Foundation’s new report, Attitudes to becoming a heat pump technician trainer, examines what considerations are at play when people are considering the move from just installing heat pumps to training others to install them. Understanding this will be critical in our ability to set the groundwork for future training. The research found that personal and social motivations – such as career growth, mentoring others, and addressing the industry’s skills gap – often outweigh financial or environmental considerations in persuading installers to become trainers. As a sector, we should be harnessing this enthusiasm and demonstrating how becoming a heat pump trainer can offer benefits other than financial ones.
Nevertheless, financial barriers remain significant. Many technicians see becoming a trainer as a pay cut compared to installation work. So, it’s essential the sector ensure financial offerings are sufficient to enable skilled heat pump installers to also do training. If our sector can harness these lessons, we can ensure that the training will be there to build the skilled workforce the UK needs.
It’s also clear that more support is needed to overcome these barriers, shape the next generation and help installers grow their businesses by training up new talent. The Low Carbon Heating Technician Apprenticeship (LCHTA), the first dedicated training provision for heat pump engineers in the UK, is designed to do just that, with funding and support from The MCS Foundation. The LCHTA is helping to equip a new generation of workers with the skills needed to design, install and commission low-carbon heating technologies. Training providers can access grants of up to £10,000, and employers can get £2,000 to enable their business to grow, via The MCS Foundation.
The small-scale renewables sector is growing and has the potential to offer good, well-paid jobs for life. To fulfil this potential, high-quality training and increased understanding of the opportunities among the public, training providers, and employers are essential, something The MCS Foundation is proud to be supporting through our grants, programmes and research activity.
