UK Government’s Heat Training Grant: A Boost for Heat Pump Installations and Green Jobs
The UK government has launched a £5 million Heat Training Grant to subsidise training for heating engineers to become qualified heat pump installers. Over 60 approved training centres across England will provide more than 6,000 heating engineers with the necessary skills, backed by a generous discount to make the training more accessible.
The scheme, which opened on July 4, 2023, will provide a £500 discount off the cost of training per person, which typically costs around £600 to complete. This means the government will cover the vast majority of the training cost. Trainees will receive the practical training needed to join a professional installer certification scheme, with all training rigorously assessed and designed to meet the highest standards needed for professional certification.
In addition to the grant, heating manufacturers including Baxi, Ideal Heating, NIBE, Vaillant, and Worcester Bosch are expected to offer additional discounts and offers to participating trainees. These benefits could be worth up to a further £500 in product vouchers, additional training and other support, helping trainees put their new skills into practice.
The Heat Training Grant Competition for heat networks has also opened for training providers to bid for £500 discounts to train up to 4,000 new heat network professionals. The government is calling on training providers across England to help nurture and grow a fresh brigade of heat network engineers by offering courses to upskill and teach them how to install and maintain them.
The government also launched the Heat Pump Investment Accelerator Competition, offering £30 million to build new factories or expand existing ones and to also retool and rework factories to manufacture heat pumps and heat pump components. The competition aims to have up to 270,000 heat pumps or components built every year in the UK from 2028, with up to 3,000 jobs supported, and generate up to £270 million of private sector investment into the domestic heat pump supply chain.
Heat pumps are a key aspect of decarbonising home heating and are central to achieving the government’s net zero targets. The government has pledged to install 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028, a tenfold increase from 2021. Installing a heat pump is more affordable than ever before thanks to grants of up to £6,000 through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which has been extended until 2028, and a zero rate on VAT.
The Heat Training Grant is a significant step towards building a skilled workforce to scale up heat pump installations and support the Prime Minister’s priority to grow the economy. It will not only give the rollout of heat pumps and heat networks a huge boost but will also help to develop a skilled workforce who will reap the rewards of joining a thriving installer market.
