Heating engineers will be eligible for grants of up to £500 towards training costs, creating new green jobs, and helping to future-proof the heating industry.
The scheme announced today echoes calls by the HPA for government to provide more help to kickstart the heat pump installer base to bolster the chances of the UK hitting its heat pump installation targets.
Grants of up to £500 will cover most of the costs of a level 3 heat pump training course, whilst manufacturing members, including some of HPA’s members, are expected to offer additional discounts to participating trainees – further reducing costs for installers and providing a more affordable route to becoming a heat pump engineer. These additional benefits could be worth up to a further £500 in product vouchers, additional training, and other support.
The HPA set out in its Pathway to Heat Pumps[1] report that the first pillar of transforming Britain’s heating industry would be to create a highly skilled installer workforce. The report recommended more intervention from Government to support adopters of low carbon heating technology through compensation for training and loss of earnings whilst undertaking this. Our 2020 Building the Installer Base for Net Zero[2] report called for the Government to introduce a voucher scheme and we have been working with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on the development of this scheme since.
Today’s announcement will go far to kickstarting the UK’s heat pump industry, and ensuring the skills are there to future proof the heating industry and enable the transition to net zero.
Phil Hurley, Chair of the HPA, said: “Installers are the most important ambassadors of heat pumps to the consumer, and the HPA warmly welcomes this scheme to support them build on their existing skill base to become the green heating installers of the future. This is exactly the sort of early-bird support we have called for.
We already have the building blocks in place - our own training course and capacity among our members to train 40,000 installers per year. This government scheme will give the industry a real boost in helping installers upskill for heat pumps to take over from gas boilers as the go-to heating technology for new and replacement systems alike in the majority of homes.”