Training Challenges That May Hamper The Uk’s Renewables Targets.
Training
It seems that in recent months, the barriers to companies, households and new builds investing in environmental technologies are coming down. With Government announcements such as the Green Deal and increased funding opportunities through new initiatives, incorporating green technologies is now a realistic prospect for many people.
Support is strengthening in the UK from both the Government and the public to meet our national carbon reduction targets. But those good intentions can only be made reality if there is a strong supply of correctly trained tradespeople to advise on, install and maintain these new technologies.
As the Sector Skills Council for the BSE sector, which includes the plumbing, electrical engineering, heating and ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration workforces, we know there is a gap between supply and demand for qualified technicians to cope with the influx of more accessible environmental technologies.
The demand is only going to increase, particularly in the domestic markets. The Government’s Green Deal papers outlined in June open up funding opportunities for homeowners to install energy efficiency measures and green technologies such as solar panels and biomass boilers. With up to 14 million householders eligible for a renewable energy overhaul, the need for trained installers is huge.
Employer needs Only householders using approved installers will qualify for Green Deal loans, to ensure the technologies are effectively and safely installed, however our research shows that much of current environmental technology training is not up to the required standards to cope with the growing interest from householders and larger builds alike.
SummitSkills carried out a series of interviews with employers in the sector to gain an understanding of the level of demand and engagement in environmental
By Keith Marshall OBE, chief executive at SummitSkills the Sector Skills Council for Building Services Engineering (BSE)
technologies in the building services engineering (BSE) sector.
The resulting Stage 3 LMI (Labour Market Intelligence) research, the last of three reports into employers and training providers’ views of the sector, identifies a number of training courses which do not match employers’ requirements. It also found a number of smaller training providers don’t require those attending their training courses to be experienced or qualified in relevant trades.
We found that many companies indicated they are engaged in or wish to engage in environmental technologies, but that they do not have the expected core competencies to do so. This could be in part due to these companies being coded for one particular BSE industry while being fully competent in others as well.
What was clear from this report was that overall, the industries in the sector are eager to progress their environmental offering, but lack the skills necessary to do so.
Trainers in the sector will be under increased pressure to provide not only government and employer recognised courses, but also clear advice as to the employment opportunities following individual courses.
Rogue trainers As interest in new energy efficient and renewable technologies increases and qualified tradespeople enjoy higher demand for their skills, we anticipate a surge in the number of rogue trainers in the sector, trying to offer below-standard training to cash in on the extra interest generated by new incentives.
The future of the BSE sector relies on high quality work from a trusted, qualified workforce and homeowners and owners of larger builds need to feel comfortable that their steps into energy saving and generating technologies are being undertaken by professionals, in a safe and efficient way.
ENVIRONMENT INDUSTRY MAGAZINE |161|
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