UHMA has approved the UK's first independent training course in underfloor heating design and installation.
'The stature of underfloor heating has reached a level when a recognised qualification has become essential,' said Brian Sensecall, secretary of UHMA, who helped develop the syllabus for the new course.

Equal weight has been given to practical and academic aspects of the course to produce a training programme that covers installation, commissioning and design.

The course is designed for professionals who already have NVQ2/ NVQ3 level skills in plumbing and heating and has two modules. The total time for both design and installation modules is three days.

Although the initial UHMA course will be based around wet systems to EN1264, modules for a complementary course in electric underfloor heating are already being prepared.

The first trainees will attend the course at Stephenson College at Coalville, Leicestershire later this year. Other colleges across the UK are also interested in adding the new underfloor heating course to their syllabuses.

Paul Johnson of BPEC, Patrick Maxwell from Stephenson College, Brian Sensecall of UHMA and Neil Collishaw from SummitSkills are pictured checking out the course syllabus which they helped develop.