Comment by Dr Vivien Kizilcec, Consumer Research Manager, and Danica Caiger-Smith, Consumer Research Lead at Energy Systems Catapult.

The UK’s heating industry is facing an acute shortage of skilled labour, which is likely to worsen as older heating engineers retire and fewer and fewer young people take up roles in a skilled trade. Concerningly, the latest Gas Safe Register data shows that the median age of engineers is 55, an age around which many start retiring or leaving the sector.

An ageing workforce is just one of the major challenges facing the heating sector. The transition to Net Zero by 2050 will require workers to be skilled in low carbon technologies. The current workforce is largely ill-equipped to advise on and install low carbon heating, such as heat pumps, and energy efficiency measures to support the efficient and effective performance of those heating systems.

To meet our Net Zero targets for instance, the number of heat pump installers will need to rise from 2,000 to 50,000-100,000. We cannot simply pluck 48,000-98,000 would-be heating engineers out of schools, colleges, and other places of work. We need to give people good reasons to come and work in the sector. The more widely those reasons appeal, the greater the success we’ll have in building a motivated workforce that understands its customers and helps bring about the change we really need.

The findings from our latest report, ‘Increasing diversity in the heating sector to address the skills shortage and meet Net Zero’ – demonstrate that real change can and needs to happen to address the industry skills shortage and meet the decarbonisation challenge.

An untapped pool of talent

With women accounting for only 2% of the heating industry workforce and only 5% of those in the energy sector having an ethnic minority background, urgent action is required to encourage a more diverse pool of entrants into the workforce.

To tap into this skills reserve, we must take tangible steps to provide flexibility, funding, and training to those who want and need it. Training must move beyond being a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Each step within the career path could likely be improved to encourage a more diverse workforce to enter and, importantly, stay within the industry.

Creating new opportunities

For starters, we should consider what’s prompted an individual’s decision to enter the heating industry. Training experiences that can be adapted to suit different individuals, their circumstances, and their different professional development approaches could help attract a more diverse workforce.

The heating industry, government, and training providers need to open the sector and its opportunities up to trainees who want to make a career change. There is no direct pathway to becoming a low carbon heating installer, despite the very obvious need for them. This needs to change. As a sector, creative steps such as introducing a modular training approach could, and should, be considered, helping to boost the number of installers in the field.

Funding and flexibility

We cannot hope to create a diverse heat pump installer workforce of 50,000-100,000 if prohibitive training costs and a lack of access act as a barrier to entry. Training courses can be expensive and funding, when available, is not always well advertised by associations or low carbon product manufacturers. Interest in low carbon training courses remains limited (although signs of a recent increase are encouraging) as the installation and repair of fossil fuel heating systems dominates the workloads of heating engineers. To drive installer demand for alternative training courses, and consumer demand for the purchase of low carbon heating solutions, Government should provide more long-term policy assurances.

This needs to change. Funding needs to be better advertised and training courses need to become more affordable for those wishing to take them. Closing the skills gap depends on it.

Training flexibility is another significant barrier. Training opportunities are often located at an association’s or manufacturer’s training facility, meaning individuals must travel, sometimes for hours on end. The duration of such courses often has little flex, making it difficult to balance work and private life.

To increase flexibility, the sector should look to make more content available online and create more flexible working models, such as shift patterns, compressed hours, and/or working every other week. Innovative solutions to perennial challenges are required now more than ever if we’re to collectively play our part in achieving Net Zero by 2050.

Creating safe work environments

It won’t come as a surprise to some that a key barrier for women and those from ethnic minority backgrounds when considering a career in the heating industry is the pervasive racist, sexist ‘banter culture’. This cannot continue. Individuals need to feel safe in their jobs and deserve to train and work in healthy and inclusive environments. Not only will this help improve retention of skills within the sector, but it will also create a passionate, fulfilled workforce of role models that continues to attract future talent, too.

Employers have a responsibility to provide inclusive work environments and increase job satisfaction, while training bodies need to place greater emphasis on providing inclusive environments and physical spaces. Until this happens, ‘banter’-driven barriers will continue to shut out a major proportion of the potential workforce, as well as failing to fully recognise and support the mental health of its current workforce.

Real change is needed

The barriers in the heating industry for women and those from ethnic minority backgrounds are numerous but not insurmountable. Instead of focusing on tokenistic interventions, real change can and needs to happen.

We’re calling for employers, industry bodies, training providers, and political bodies to:

• Increase availability and awareness of fair job opportunities
• Tailor training to individual’s needs, prior experiences, and ambitions
• Tackle discrimination to achieve a healthy and inclusive environment

The report we have produced points to clear, targeted actions that can be taken to unlock opportunities for women, those from ethnic minority backgrounds, and those put off by the high costs, lack of flexibility, and toxic work environments.

We cannot afford to delay any further. Tokenistic interventions have done little to improve diversity in the sector. It is time for real change that puts people first.