The Engagement in the Installation of Environmental Technologies by the Building Services Engineering Sector within London Summary of Key Issues
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The Engagement in the Installation of Environmental Technologies by the Building Services Engineering Sector within London The report was commissioned to consider a number of issues related to the environmental technologies agenda within the building services engineering (BSE) sector and specifically the Skills for Climate Change project in Newham College in London. For the comprehensive details and background on the issues outlined in this summary, please view the whole report that is available on the Skills for Climate Change Website, http://www.sfcc.co.uk Overview This piece of work covers a number of areas of work under the follow broad headings:Key Issue 1 - To understand BSE employers’ current attitudes to low carbon skills Key Issue 2 - To uncover BSE employers’ attitudes about the Green Deal initiative and how prepared they are for its roll out Key Issue 3 - To identify whether BSE companies intend to seek work and of what type through the Green Deal initiative Key Issue 4 - To assess BSE employers’ awareness of the learning tools that the Skills for Climate Change project has developed, and to what extent they use the learning tools Key Issue 5 - To identify BSE employers’ preferred delivery methods for learning tools, to raise awareness of existing Skills for Climate Change learning tools and to establish whether new types of tools need to be developed. Key Issue 6 - To estimate what awareness training still needs to happen in the light of the Green Deal and the London Plan. Methodology The methodology for this report was devised using semi-structured interviews – ranging from 15 minutes to two hours in length - based on the six key issues with the various industries comprising the Building Services Engineering (BSE) sector. In addition to the four core industries within the BSE sector of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, Electrotechnical, Heating and Ventilating and Plumbing, SummitSkills has identified a new sub-industry developing, the Environmental industry, and this group was also added to the survey.
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It was originally intended to undertake ten interviews within each industry, trying to get as representative a spread of company sizes as possible, however as 85% of the sector comprises of micro companies, it was not felt given the tight timeframes related that it was too important to get an absolute mix of the 15% of non-micro businesses within the sector. Nevertheless, within each industry there are small/medium and larger companies represented. As will be seen later within this report, it was not possible to fully cover all of the themes of this research through the interview process. The interviewees were selected at random throughout London, and having telephoned 719 companies, the survey had to utilise data from the thirty eight companies prepared to take part. This means that the survey sample was not complete across the whole of the sample framework. It was particularly noticeable that companies within the BSE sector, who perceived themselves to be operating within the environmental arena, were reluctant to engage with the interview process. Key Issue 1 Building services engineering employers’ attitudes to low carbon skills The engagement by the Building Services Engineering (BSE) sector in environmental technologies has grown between 2008 and 2011, although this growth has been slow, and still under 35% of the companies in the sector are engaged in even the most ‘popular’ and ‘well known’ technologies (Figure 1; Hammond 2012) Figure 1: Percentage of BSE companies involved in the installation of environmental technologies between 2008 and 2011
In London, of the thirty-eight contractors interviewed for this report, over 90% were not engaged in environmental technologies, and many were openly cynical about the effectiveness of the environmental agenda. The current economic climate, and the problems facing the sector in
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obtaining work is exacerbating this situation, with companies ‘re-trenching’ to traditional work types and patterns, and being reluctant to invest in environmental technologies.
Key Issue 2 The BSE sector’s attitude to the Green Deal The BSE sector in the UK is reluctant to engage in the Green Deal initiative, as can be seen in Figure 2 (National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies and SummitSkills, 2012; awaiting publication). Figure 2: The number of companies by BSE industry that are interested in becoming involved in the Green Deal initiative
This is further confirmed in London, as over 90% of the BSE companies surveyed had not heard about the Green Deal initiative. When it was explained to them, only three companies were prepared to consider engaging with the policy, and this was driven by the motivation of trying to find some work. Some BSE contractors were wary of Green Deal because of the Feed-In-Tariff problems. There was also an underlying current of ‘distrust’ within the sector in London for the Government. The BSE sector is not prepared for the Green Deal roll out currently, and is reluctant to invest in training to become ‘Green Deal ready’. It would appear that further work is needed to ‘sell’ the Green Deal initiative to the BSE sector.
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Key Issue 3 The type of environmental technology work that the BSE sector intends to undertake through the Green Deal initiative Across the UK, a very small number of BSE companies appear to have identified the Green Deal initiative as being a vehicle for installing a whole range of environmental technologies. Only one interviewee identified ‘thermals’ (which suggests heat pumps and biomass) as being what they hoped to install under the Green Deal Scheme. Many of the technologies that the sector claims it is hoping to fit under the Green Deal initiative appear not to be covered in the Government scheme currently. The potential mismatch identified in this report shows the lack of understanding within the sector of the detail of the Green Deal. Key issue 4 To assess BSE employers’ awareness of the learning tools that the Skills for Climate Change project has developed, and to what extent they use the learning tools. None of the BSE employers prepared to give interviews for this report had undertaken a course under the Skills for Climate Change initiative or heard of the initiative. Those employers who had received some information by email, and in one case this information appeared to have come from a trade association. Five companies who had not heard of the initiative were interested in receiving information about the courses. Key Issue 5 To assess the BSE sectors preferred method of delivery of learning tools The BSE sector employers interviewed preferred hands-on short practical courses to obtain the training that they needed to retain competence or obtain relevant certification etc. Preferred providers identified include specialist private training providers and manufacturers for installation of specialist types of kit or obtaining specific certification awards. Some companies felt confident with online training data, although the majority preferred traditional delivery modes. Key Issue 6 To estimate what awareness training still needs to happen in the light of the Green Deal and the London Plan. The BSE sector in London (and in the rest of the UK for that matter) needs a considerable amount of awareness raising about the importance of environmental technologies and developing skills in the installation of them, and the potential amount of business that may be generated as a result of legislation and Government initiatives in the future. Current scepticism and hostility to environmental technologies coupled with a lack of trust in Government needs to
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be challenged, so that the sector can make a meaningful contribution to the achievement of carbon reduction targets. References Hammond, M.J. (2012) ‘Skills needs in the Building Services Engineering Sector’ in Greene,L. Wiley,T (eds). Renewable Energy: Made in Britain London, Renewable Energy Association. The National Skills Academy for Environmental Technologies and SummitSkills (2012) ‘The engagement in environmental technologies training by the BSE sector in preparation for the Green Deal’, unpublished.
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