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ANALYSIS | Installer skills gap crisis


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of sole trader installers plan on retiring from the industry within the next 10 years


business in the here and now. So, is there a danger that when this surge in demand falls back to a normal level, will the installer skills gap stop being a priority? Do we risk losing the mom - entum on finding a solution to the long-term issue?


So, the question we should really be


asking now is, where do we go from here?


The bad news is that there doesn’t appear to be a short-term solution or quick fix to the installer skills gap. Simply put, short of magicking up skilled installers there is nothing you can do today that will sort this issue out tomorrow.


“Retailers just need to be honest with themselves and their customers about the fact that there simply aren’t enough quality


installers available at


the moment,” says Walters. “Then it’s about acknowledging just how valuable the installers they do work


40


with are to their business.


“Bringing installers into your business, really embracing them, communicating with them and showing them that you value them, is more important now than it has ever been. You think you have a problem with fitters now? Imagine if those installers you rely on started walking away and choosing other options?” And that brings


The pandemic has magnified an existing problem because we simply haven’t got enough installers to meet the demand


us nicely round to the long-term solution – apprenticeships. “There is no other solution to this other than growing our own [UK] installer population and the only way we


can do that is through


Damian Walters, CEO, BiKBBI


apprenticeships,” says Walters. “This isn’t a pipe dream anymore – we’ve created the apprenticeship and all we’re looking to do now is to roll it out across the country. But the only way this is going to be a success is if the industry gets behind it. That means suppliers, distributors, and manufacturers, putting their hands in their pockets to support the initia- tive financially, and retailers encoura- ging their installers to be part of the


BiKBBI family. Because those installers will be future employers of the future apprentices. We can’t offer appren- ticeships without having employers driving them. “We’ve got the long-term solution.


Now all we need is for the industry to support it.”


The reality of course, however, is that apprenticeships take a lot of time to administer, something that is a limited resource in the current climate. “Taking on young people in appren- takes a lot


ticeship roles of


time,


money and effort and that’s a luxury the industry doesn’t have at the moment,” adds Mark Conacher at Liberty. “That said, I’m 100% behind everything the BiKBBI is doing. We can’t fix this problem right now, so all we can do is look to the future. That’s when I think the real problem will rear its head – when in the next 10 years all the experienced fitters start retiring.”


• You can hear Damian Walters and Mark Conacher discuss the installer skills gap crisis on season 3, episode 14 of The kbbreview Podcast


· November 2021


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