Heat Pump Training In Focus During Scottish Parliament Visit To Vaillant’s Centre Of Excellence In Glasgow

Vaillant has welcomed Patrick Harvie Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), Minister for Zero Carbon Buildings and Active Travel and Tenants Rights, and Stephanie Callaghan MSP for Uddingston and Bellshill, to its Centre of Excellence training facility in Glasgow.

The visit coincided with an announcement that the Scottish Government will fund a £17.6m Green Heat Innovation Support Programme and plan to ensure the right skills are in place to help decarbonise home heating. The Members visited Vaillant to see how the company is helping move the green skills agenda forward.

With an ambitious target of over 1 million homes to be to be running on zero direct emissions heating systems by 2030, the installation of heat pumps plays a key role in the Scottish Government’s low carbon future and green job plans. Mr Harvie and Ms Callaghan enjoyed a tour of the Vaillant facility, which has seen over 300 installers trained on heat pump technology in the past year. As part of the visit, they were also able to witness first hand a face-to-face heat pump course in action, where installers were learning how to install and commission the Vaillant air source heat pump range.

Helping push the low carbon agenda forward, Vaillant’s Centres of Excellence offer a full range of training courses that build on the four pillars the company feels are needed to drive the net zero ambitions; the first of which is the need to upskill existing and new heating engineers. Current estimates suggest 100,000 heating engineers will need to be fully trained to get near the target of installing 600,000 heat pumps each year in the UK by 2028.

Zero Carbon Buildings Minister, Patrick Harvie MSP commented: “I was pleased to announce the Heat in Buildings Supply Chains Delivery Plan and Green Heat Innovation Support Programme at Vaillant’s Centre of Excellence training facility in Glasgow. Having access to warm, comfortable places to live and work is essential to our nation’s health and wellbeing, and it is critical that the right skills are in place to help decarbonise home heating. This visit was a fantastic opportunity to understand Vaillant’s views on the journey to decarbonisation and see the great work that they are carrying out at their training centres in Scotland.”

Stephanie Callaghan MSP added: “It was a pleasure to see the high-quality training facilities at the Vaillant Centre of Excellence in North Lanarkshire. I’m really pleased that we have a training centre within my constituency that heating engineers can utilise to upskill, and ultimately help residents within Scotland switch to low carbon heating solutions.”

During the visit, Vaillant also discussed its latest partnership with Aberdeen Training Centre. The partnership will help extend its course availability through the training provider and college network so that installers coming into the industry are equipped to fit heat pumps and low carbon technology from the outset.

Working with Aberdeen Training Centre founder Steve Anderson and Operations Director John Toet, Vaillant will provide heat pump training to the training provider and college lecturers - enabling them to educate future heating engineers from the beginning of their career on the workings and benefits of heat pumps. The initial activation will be in place in early 2023 with plans to widen this across Scotland over the coming year.

Mark Wilkins, Technologies and Training Director at Vaillant, commented: “Having the right skills in place is vital to the successful transition to low carbon technology. Training existing heating engineers is one element of this, which is already becoming well established. In fact, we can see from our training sessions in Glasgow that over 66% of the courses being delivered are on heat pumps. However, attracting new talent into the industry must be a focus. A career in this sector is rewarding and a crucial part of ensuring our homes run more efficiently while reducing the environmental impact.

“News of the plans and funding allocated by the Scottish Government to boost the numbers who have the right skills to take on the low carbon challenge, is welcomed. We are extremely proud of the work we have been doing in this area, through the likes of partnering with Aberdeen Training Centre, and we are delighted to be able to offer our support to expanding opportunities further.”