However, the skills challenge continues to be a problem for the sector, according to OFTEC’s head of public affairs, Malcolm Farrow. Malcolm shares his views here.
There is increasing evidence that in its heat decarbonising planning, the government has underestimated the scale of the skills challenge and the policy interventions needed to achieve it.
Part of the reason may be due to over optimistic assumptions about the willingness of installers to switch from fitting oil or gas boilers to installing heat pumps. The average age of oil and gas heating installers is currently around 50, and many will no doubt have concluded they can work through to retirement without needing to consider diversifying.
There is also evidence that while the training provision and course take up has greatly increased, technicians that do the training are not necessarily using it. OFTEC’s own training data appears to bear this out. Over 45 of our training centre members now offer OFTEC heat pump training courses and over 1,600 technicians successfully completed them last year – a figure significantly boosted by government-funded training.
However, heat pump competent person scheme registrations remain low, suggesting that technicians are taking advantage of the funded training, but are not yet seeing enough demand to justify taking the additional steps necessary to begin diversifying. This is perhaps unsurprising. The cost and bureaucracy involved in obtaining the certifications required to install heat pumps under the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme are a significant hurdle for small businesses, particularly if you only expect to install a handful each year.
Government policies have ‘come up short’
It seems clear that to deliver the kind of growth required in the heat pump market, a new workforce will also be needed. But here the government’s policies have come up short; the provisions needed to attract and train new entrants, provide career pathways for them, and engage with existing businesses to support this, is seriously underdeveloped.
Take apprenticeships for example. The Low Carbon Heating Apprenticeship was only allocated funding in September 2023, and many Further Education colleges are not yet set up to deliver this.
According to the gov.uk website, there are only 23 FE colleges delivering this apprenticeship, compared with 66 offering Gas Engineering apprenticeships, and 125 offering Domestic Plumbing and Heating.
Generally (although not always) the intake for apprentices is in September each year, and with the apprenticeship taking three years to complete, this will leave a shortfall until more FE colleges are able to deliver the programme.
While organisations including OFTEC have developed industry recognised short-course training and assessment programmes for heat pumps, these are aimed at experienced existing heating technicians and are unsuitable for school leavers with no prior experience.
Action needed on apprenticeships
Existing heating businesses are also sometimes reluctant to employ apprentices. For a small business the cost of both renumeration and formal training, insurance liability and the loss of existing efficiency and productivity while mentoring an apprentice, can be a significant burden.
However, with the right support these host businesses can play a crucial role by passing on real-world skills and experience and providing a much-needed stepping stone to a career in the renewable heating industry. Apprentices may also give small businesses the workforce boost they need to make diversification into heat pump installations a practical proposition.
But to make this a reality, urgent action is needed by the government to make apprenticeships attractive and rewarding, both to entrants and the host business.
Suitable pathways are also needed to encourage and enable mature workers to seek new career opportunities in the heating sector. It’s only with a policy focus that stretches across all the potential routes into the heat pump sector that the skills gap can be addressed at the pace needed.
Image credit: OFTEC, Malcolm Farrow.