What skills and training are heat pump engineers looking for?
www.nesta.org.uk/project-updates/what-skills-and-training-are-heat-pump-engineers-looking-for/
www.nesta.org.uk/project-updates/what-skills-and-training-are-heat-pump-engineers-looking-for/
What do heat pump installers think of the sector they work in? What’s going well and what needs to change? These questions led us to run the sector’s most comprehensive survey of renewable heating engineers. Partnering with Emma Bohan and Nathan Gambling, we gathered opinions from 345 active heat pump installers across a huge range of issues.
We published the survey’s main results in June 2024, but there were many other findings we weren’t able to include in the report. This series of updates examines those remaining topics, which are:
Alongside the main report, these findings aim to help innovators and decision makers respond to the needs of the sector – and in so doing help it grow. We encourage readers to cite these findings in their own work or contact the survey team directly to discuss the findings.
Being a heat pump engineer is a multifaceted role requiring a range of tasks and skills, so heating engineers transitioning into the profession will encounter numerous changes to their ways of working. Not only do companies installing heat pumps need to design systems to a more accurate, precise and detailed standard than many tend to do when working with gas or oil, but they also have to complete multiple new regulatory procedures and administrative tasks.
On top of this, business owners transitioning into the heat pump sector may need to adapt how they manage their business to work around comparatively more time-intensive heat pump installations. This often requires a broader range of skills, more personnel, better customer service and an increased probability of extra work to the property.
Given the wide range of skills and tasks involved in working with heat pumps, do engineers feel their training to date has prepared them for this work? Are there any skills they want to improve on, and how would they like to do so?
We asked participants how prepared they felt for their current role working with heat pumps based on training they had completed in their careers to date. In Figure 1, most (77%) said they felt prepared or very prepared. However, that still leaves about a quarter of respondents who couldn’t say that they felt prepared, rising to a third of those with less than three years of experience in the heat pump sector.
Figure 1: How prepared heat pump installers feel for their work based on their tenure in the sector
The fact that up to a third of engineers don’t feel prepared for their work is enough reason to find ways to help them improve their skills and confidence. But it is even more important given the current context of the sector. Our survey found 87% of engineers want to install more heat pumps and that many are still working mostly with gas systems (page 23 of the report). This means there will likely be a wider need to improve levels of confidence and preparedness in the workforce beyond current levels as many businesses look to further expand their heat pump work.
A heat pump engineer is a multifaceted role requiring competence in a wide range of activities, from designing and installing heating systems to business management, completing regulatory processes, and delivering good customer service. Figure 2 shows how the vast majority of respondents across all levels of experience with heat pumps said they are involved in more than one aspect of the business. In fact, a third of all respondents selected all nine work activity options they were presented with.
This requirement for engineers to have a wide range of skills might explain why some respondents report feeling unprepared for their jobs.
Figure 2: Number of options selected when asked which type(s) of work engineers do
Furthermore, the tasks that engineers are working on change and grow over time. Figure 3 shows how a greater proportion of respondents with the most heat pump experience (over 10 years) report doing each work activity we asked about, apart from the installation of a heat pump. This is also illustrated in Figure 2, which shows that a larger proportion of those with the least heat pump experience (under three years) do only one type of work compared to those with more experience (3 to 10 years).
Figure 3: Most common types of activities installers do as part of their work
The combination of doing multiple tasks requiring a breadth of skills and continually needing to learn new ones may explain why some heat pump installers don’t feel prepared for their work.
As Figure 2 shows the majority of participants work in multiple aspects of the business, it is understandable that the skills they most want to improve span across many work areas.
As Figure 3 suggests, there appears to be a shift towards office- and desk-based tasks and away from physical installation work for the most experienced respondents. The skills they want to improve are strongly related to this. Figure 4 shows that business management is the most popular skill for respondents with the most heat pump experience.
Although there is more variety in the skills that less experienced respondents want to improve, this could reflect the natural differences in the strengths, skills and career goals between individuals. However, an appreciable portion were also interested in improving skills that would help them to progress into more office-based roles in the future. For example, the most popular option for respondents with 3 to 10 years of heat pump experience was also business management, and 16% of those with less than three years of heat pump experience wanted to improve their business management skills, making it the second most popular option behind heat loss surveying and calculations (18%).
Continuing with this theme, 13% of those with under 10 years of heat pump experience want to improve their administrative and paperwork skills. This may be connected to the finding that many survey respondents don’t feel as if they’re spending the right amount of time on business administration and post-installation paperwork (page 27-28 of the report).
Figure 4: Skill improvement areas identified by installers
Overall there is a large demand for improving office-based skills, from business management and administration through to heat loss calculations and system design. Not only does this reflect the potential skills that installers identified for new tasks as they progress through their career, but also gaps in the core training that engineers are likely to receive. This suggests a need for additional training or support to provide to engineers on the topics of business management, administration and system design.
Heat pump engineers currently draw on a range of other sources to fill gaps in their knowledge (Figure 5), suggesting there may not be a one-size-fits-all approach to how additional training should be delivered. Additionally, the preferred type of training may depend on the reason for seeking it out, or the skill the engineer is looking to learn.
For example, the top three most popular options in Figure 5 (training courses, manufacturer technical support, and informal advice from colleagues) are all likely to be used in different contexts or to develop different skills.
Similarly, use of social media is particularly high among respondents with the least heat pump experience – double the proportion of those with the most experience. While this may be related to a younger demographic being more engaged with social media, it may also be a way for new, less-networked entrants to rapidly learn about a broader range of experiences and situations from others in the sector.
Figure 5: how installers have faced gaps in their training
For further training courses, the data in Figure 6 shows how manufacturer-led courses, usually focused on specific training for their technology or units, are more popular than installer-led courses, focused on deeper knowledge and skill building such as Heat Geek and Kimbo Betty. While this could be explained by a greater prevalence of or requirement to complete manufacturer training, rather than a true preference over installer-led training, it does show engineers have a large amount of contact with, and trust for, manufacturers.
Even if manufacturers can’t offer the full range of training interests for installers, it suggests they might be an important route to host or share broader training opportunities to heating engineers, such as business management and administration, as well as system design and installation.
Figure 6: Additional training or certifications completed by installers
On preferred options for training, the vast majority of respondents in Figure 7 said they prefer this to be face-to-face rather than online. The preference is so strong that many also say they would be willing to travel more than one hour for this. However, this again may depend on the type of training offered or the availability of courses. For example, Figure 6 shows a larger proportion of respondents had completed online installer-led courses than had completed in-person ones. It may be that the information taught in such courses is more appropriate for online training, especially if it is on topics related to theory, system design or heat loss calculations; or if the desired courses aren’t available in person. This trend could also be explained by the survey taking place in 2023, soon after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Figure 7: Installers preferred methods of doing training
While it is reassuring that most heat pump engineers feel that their training has prepared them for their work, almost all are still addressing gaps in their knowledge (Figure 5). Additionally, as engineers seek to increase their number of heat pump installations (page 23 of the report), it is likely a greater proportion will need to improve their confidence and preparedness beyond current levels to meet their goals.
While engineers need to have a variety of skills to complete a wide range of tasks, their role often evolves towards office-based and business management tasks. Our survey responses reflect this, suggesting a need for greater opportunities for all engineers to learn about topics such as business management and administration, which may not usually be covered in their core training.
Engineers are currently using a variety of learning methods to supplement their core formal training, but manufacturers could play a critical role in further training for engineers in the future. Our survey identified that engineers already hold great trust for manufacturers, illustrated by the high proportion that attend manufacturer training and use their ad-hoc technical support. Manufacturers could support by increasing accessibility of training on broader topics for the sector, such as business management, administration and system design. This could range from simply guiding engineers towards training in other areas, to hosting external training providers to deliver specialist courses.
It is clear that engineers also build their skills through informal channels, such as social media and seeking advice from colleagues. If these connections were facilitated to become more frequent and accessible, it could create a well-networked industry of engineers that are continually educating each other with accurate, “peer-reviewed” advice, and with fair compensation for doing so. Nesta will be exploring how this might operate in future work. This will be discussed in more detail in our next blog: ‘How can industry bodies and informal networks further empower heat pump installers?’
