Helping UK installers to prepare for a green future

Launched at a special event at the House of Lords in April, Vaillant Aspire is a new learning pathway designed to upskill UK heating engineers to fit heat pumps. The training programme follows the company’s in depth research into installer attitudes to heat pump training, which has helped to highlight some of the barriers and motivators behind learning new skills.

The aim of the programme is to enable existing heating engineers to expand their business by offering low carbon solutions and help them to become MCS accredited. It is hoped that the training initiative will help to increase the number of MCS registered installers and thereby enable more installers to access grants on offer from the government’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS). The investment an installer will make to complete Aspire training will be offset by discounted registration for both MCS and NAPIT accreditation.

Offering a modular approach to suit individual needs, each Aspire ‘learning journey’ will be personalised, based on the installer’s existing qualifications, starting with theory-based modules covering a variety of subjects from heat loss and system design, to commissioning the heat pump and setting up controls. Training will include a mix of online and face-toface modules held in one of Vaillant’s six Centres of Excellence. As most installation businesses are small enterprises, Vaillant will also offer guidance on implementing a Quality Management System and customer service, part of the necessary processes to join a Competent Persons Scheme or become MCS registered.

Participants taking part in Aspire will also have access to Vaillant’s system sales and design team who will be able to offer advice and guidance on best-practice system design or deliver the full design, depending on the type of MCS accreditation the installer requires. In addition, the company’s service team will provide on-site support to ensure an installer’s first installation meets industry standards.

Installer survey

Speaking at the official launch of the training initiative, Mark Wilkins, Vaillant’s technologies and training director, presented the key findings of the company’s installer survey, which helped to develop the Aspire learning pathway.

“It’s clear that the target of installing 600,000 heat pumps by 2028 will be a significant challenge, and part of that challenge is building a community of expert installers,” said Mark. “The launch of Aspire will be a significant step in achieving this goal, to ensure that consumers can find appropriately skilled installers for heat pump installations, as well as traditional heating systems.”

Vaillant surveyed more than 1100 and was encouraged by the great majority of those who took part recognising a need to train, with 87% of installers answering ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’ when asked if they were interested in undertaking air source heat pump training in the next 12 months.

The top three motivators of these installers looking to undertake heat pump training were future-proofing their business or career development, the benefits for the environment by supporting the net zero agenda, and personal financial benefits from installing a diverse range of heating technologies.

Of the 994 installers surveyed by Vaillant who expressed an interest in upskilling, 55% felt that they would prefer ‘entirely in-person training’ when it came to air source heat pumps, whilst ‘a combination of in-person and online’ was preferred by 40% of those surveyed.

It has been estimated that 40,000 heat pump qualified installers will be needed to achieve government targets. However, as most installers will also continue to service and maintain gas boilers, at least in the short to medium term, Vaillant estimates up to 100,000 installers will need to be trained – and Aspire is viewed as a major breakthrough in helping to achieve that objective.

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