We wanted to understand whether alleviating these challenges could increase the number of apprentices that are taken on by employers, and if doing so could be an important way to grow the heat pump workforce.

We interviewed representatives from heat pump businesses, training colleges, trade associations and certification bodies to understand the challenges they faced. We then used our findings to develop potential innovation projects that Nesta could work on to solve identified challenges and help increase apprentice uptake.

It’s well known that the heat pump industry, and the wider heating and plumbing sector, have an ageing population. Increasing the number of younger engineers in the workforce is essential for maintaining this vital industry’s capacity. However, there’s a strong need to go beyond simply maintaining the size of the heat pump workforce, and to proactively grow it. This is crucial for meeting the UK’s heat pump installation and net-zero targets.

An important route to entering the heating industry is through an apprenticeship. Not only does this increase the number of younger engineers in the workforce, but many in the sector regard apprenticeships as one of the most effective ways to learn the trade. This may partly be because employers are able to teach apprentices what they view as best practice, making them especially valuable and productive, often before they’ve finished training. Training future heat pump engineers on the job through apprenticeships is particularly important in the heat pump sector, where the availability and quality of training can be mixed.

This means that not only would increasing the number of apprenticeships address the industry’s ageing population, but it could also increase the number of highly skilled and productive heat pump engineers. However, the question still remains as to whether it would be possible to increase the number of heat pump apprentices, and to the extent that it could grow – and not simply maintain – the heat pump industry to meet installation targets.

There appears to be some scope to increase apprentice uptake from employers. BEIS’s heating and cooling installer study found only 21% of engineers currently had an apprentice, and Nesta’s heat pump installer survey found that 39% of respondents had employed an apprentice in the past 12 months. Both of these figures suggest there are many more who could take on apprentices. Additionally, those who currently employ apprentices may be able to take on more.

However, despite there being the scope to increase apprenticeship uptake, there are challenges to doing so in practice. Firstly, many of the larger companies, who are best placed to take on apprentices, are already doing so. BEIS’s study found 83% of businesses with 10 or more employees currently had an apprentice, whilst Nesta’s survey found that 70% of companies with over 5 employees had employed an apprentice in the past 12 months.

It’s clear that the smallest companies are facing the biggest barriers to taking on apprentices. Nesta’s survey found that only 31% of those with between 1 and 5 employees had employed an apprentice in the past 12 months, compared to 70% of those with over 5 employees.

There isn’t just a challenge with encouraging those who don’t take on apprentices to do so, but also with enabling those who are currently offering apprenticeships to take on more. BEIS’s study found that only 33% of apprentice-hiring employers have more than one apprentice and only 20% of businesses thought they should take on an additional apprentice each year. This suggests that the majority of those that currently offer apprenticeships aren’t interested in taking on more. Although it could be that the micro-businesses that dominate this sector simply don’t have enough staff to mentor extra apprentices, there could be other reasons why 80% of businesses don’t want to hire extra apprentices.

So whilst there may be some scope to increase the number of heat pump apprentices in the sector, there are likely challenges in the way.

Our research insights are focused on the two apprenticeships most relevant to the heat pump sector: the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship (including the final year environmental pathway option) and the low carbon heating technician apprenticeship.

The challenges we identified through our research can be broken down into three themes:

• Challenges employers face when taking on, and employing, an apprentice
• Challenges colleges face with implementing the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship environmental pathway and the low carbon heating technician apprenticeship
• Challenges with using apprenticeships to rapidly grow the heat pump engineer workforce

These themes are explored below, but they can also be viewed on the apprenticeship pathway diagram to better understand where and when challenges may occur.

Challenges employers face when taking on an apprentice

Financial investment

The financial investment of taking on an apprentice is a major challenge many business owners face, explained by the prevalence of micro-businesses in the sector. Although the government covers 95%-100% of college fees, employers have to pay the apprentice’s wage. This can be particularly difficult for employers when apprentices add limited extra value to the business in the first year or two, and as the employer is paying for their time in college too. First-time apprentice employers, those in the smallest businesses, those expanding from sole trading and those taking on an older apprentice find this notably difficult.

There are also other extra costs employers must cover, in addition to apprentice wages, such as different types of insurance, new or replacement tools and uniforms.

Although it didn’t emerge as one of the most important challenges, many business owners have experienced apprentices or applicants that have a bad attitude, poor motivation and low desire to learn. Many have said that this is more likely to be the case with the youngest apprentices (16 and 17-year-olds) and that older apprentices (over the age of 21) are generally very motivated, have a strong desire to learn and have a generally better attitude. Despite this leading to a preference for older apprentices for some, they can be prohibitively expensive to hire due to the higher minimum wage for those over 18 or over 21. This can prevent employers from being able to take on the best apprentice for their business or discourage them from taking on an apprentice at all.

Finding appropriate training courses

A large challenge for heat pump business owners is finding a college offering relevant training for their potential apprentice. At the end of 2024, there were just 3 colleges offering the low carbon heating technician apprenticeship across Great Britain and interviewees reported difficulty in finding colleges that offer the environmental pathway for the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship. Adding to this challenge, a suitable college must be located close enough to the apprentice or employer, and with good public transport links, as many apprentices can’t drive when they first start the course.

Although some employers who work with both gas boilers and heat pumps may be able to send their apprentices on the gas pathway of the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship instead of a more appropriate course, many face challenges with this too.

Firstly, many employers who work predominantly with heat pumps may not do enough gas-related work to allow the apprentice to gain the relevant experience or portfolio evidence required by the course. Businesses may also have to alter their business plans and take on gas-related jobs they wouldn’t otherwise do, to best support their apprentice. Similarly, the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship has a wide curriculum, making it hard for some employers to offer all of the relevant experience to their apprentice.

Even if businesses are open to taking on different jobs to support their apprentice through the gas pathway, colleges may decline to work with companies if they don’t believe they can provide the student with ample experience.

This means it’s not only difficult to find an appropriate course provider, but that those willing to use workaround solutions may be presented with a fresh set of challenges.

Post-apprenticeship retention

Many business owners are wary that a newly qualified apprentice could leave the business after the employer has spent three to four years of time and money investing in their training. Not only would this be a loss on investment for business owners, but there’s a risk apprentices could work in direct competition with them. There’s often little to prevent this, leading some to be discouraged from taking on an apprentice.

College communications

Some employers experience issues with communications from colleges, though this varies dramatically depending on the college with many employers reporting very positive experiences too.

In addition to a general update on apprentice performance, employers especially value being kept up-to-date on information about the experiences their apprentice needs to fulfil for their portfolio when the college tutor wants to conduct a site visit and what they’d like to assess. Some employers also like to have information on the curriculum, so they can try to align the jobs they’re giving apprentices with what's being taught in colleges.

Communication about this allows them to best support their apprentice, whilst also running their business in an efficient way. For example, it allows them to plan and schedule jobs around certain tasks if they’re needed for an assessor visit or for the apprentice’s portfolio. Poor communication on this can lead to employers having to find similar jobs to replicate experiences that were already covered but not recorded or assessed.

Whilst poor communication from colleges can certainly add challenges to running a business and taking on an apprentice, our interviews suggest that it isn’t a major barrier to taking on apprentices.

Challenges colleges face with implementing the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship environmental pathway and the low carbon heating technician apprenticeship

Course demand

Our research suggests that many colleges don’t offer the low carbon heating technician apprenticeship or the environmental pathway of the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship as they can’t see enough demand from local businesses.

Colleges generally need roughly 15 students in each cohort to make it worth running a course; though this could be closer to 8 students when running a new course. It’s understandable that securing enough students, all starting at the same time, to run these courses could be difficult within the limits of a college’s catchment and given the small size of the heat pump sector.

However, there’s also a chance that some of the demand for these courses is being diluted. Some businesses have stopped requesting the course from colleges, either because they’ve given up on trying to persuade them, or they’ve developed their own workaround.

For example, some employers mentioned that they used to withdraw their apprentice from the course after they achieved a level 2 certification and sent them on a series of training courses to gain the relevant qualifications for installing heat pumps (though this is no longer possible). Similarly, many companies that also work with gas are simply sending their apprentices on the gas pathway of the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship in lieu of a better option.

Similarly, some business owners who want their apprentice to be qualified in both gas and heat pumps may actually be content with sending their apprentice on gas-related apprenticeships, as it’s a more efficient use of the government funding, covers a wider range of skills, feels familiar to the employer, and results in a more tangible and widely-recognised qualification for the apprentice. Therefore, they may not be proactively requesting the college to run the environmental pathway or low carbon heating technician apprenticeship courses, even if they would use it if it was available.

Course tutors

Our interviews with colleges suggest that the lack of trainers competent in low-carbon heating technologies is a major barrier to them offering the low-carbon heating technician apprenticeship or the environmental pathway of the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship. This is because the heat pump sector is relatively small, and many of those with the knowledge to teach these courses are working in heat pump installation, servicing or repairs. There’s also a wider shortage of plumbing tutors, and high turnover in this field, which limits the number of tutors that can be trained and upskilled in teaching these courses.

Although plumbing and gas tutors can attend heat pump courses to prepare themselves for teaching the apprenticeships, this may not be enough to make them feel confident enough to teach such courses, especially after feeling very confident teaching plumbing and gas. Additionally, some may feel as if the apprentices they’re teaching will very quickly have more practical experience with heat pumps than they do, increasing this lack of confidence.

Some tutors have shadowed heat pump engineers to try and gain extra knowledge and confidence, but colleges have mentioned it’s hard to fit this in around the rest of their responsibilities.

Competing courses

The fact that there are multiple similar apprenticeships relating to heating and plumbing amplifies the issues of low course demand and the availability of tutors discussed above. Although each course is distinct, there are similarities in the type of employer who would want to send their apprentice on the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship, the low carbon heating technician apprenticeship, and other related qualifications, such as the gas engineering operative apprenticeship. There is also some crossover with who can teach these courses. This can make it difficult for colleges to offer multiple courses, as it’s harder to meet the minimum cohort size and find enough college tutors to do so.

Investment in new courses and space

Colleges need to invest in new equipment, allocate training space, and develop a new curriculum and course materials in order to run the low-carbon heating technician apprenticeship or the environmental pathway of the plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship. They also need to have guaranteed continual demand to make this investment in equipment, time and using the physical space worthwhile. However, colleges can’t see the demand for these courses, and they don’t receive any extra money for these apprenticeships than they do for the Gas Pathway apprenticeship. This lowers their expected return on the initial investment and reduces their incentive to put resources into offering such apprenticeships.

Challenges with using apprenticeships to rapidly grow the heat pump engineer workforce

A preference for younger apprentices

Some employers would prefer to take on older apprentices but are prevented from being able to do so by the higher minimum wage. There are perceived benefits to taking on older apprentices, over the age of 21. For example, older apprentices are often considered more reliable, motivated and have a more mature attitude. They can also learn more quickly and add value to the business sooner. These traits are often challenges employers face when looking for potential apprentices who have just finished school.

Because of this, some employers would prefer to take on older apprentices but are prevented from being able to do so by the higher minimum wage.

The inability to take on older apprentices diminishes the ability to use apprenticeships to rapidly grow the heat pump sector’s workforce or output. This situation is excluding a cohort of potential apprentices from contributing to the growth of the industry and preventing some employers that prefer older apprentices from taking one on at all. It could also prevent a pool of potential heat pump apprentices from entering the sector who might be able to add more value or productivity to the industry more quickly than their younger counterparts.

Initial assessment

The initial assessment is an opportunity for the college, employer and apprentice to discuss each of their needs and modify the apprenticeship to match these if needed. As part of this, it can be used to shorten or restructure an apprenticeship for those with previous experience, skills and qualifications. This could make it a useful way to rapidly grow the workforce by shortening the course for individuals in adjacent industries who might have transferable skills.

However, doing this in practice may be difficult. This is because a framework is usually used to match a student’s previous qualifications to the relevant apprenticeship course modules. This is then used to determine which portions of the course can be omitted and if the student could undertake a shorter course. This means that colleges are unlikely to shorten a course for someone who lacks qualifications, but might otherwise have transferable skills or practical experience. An employer can still try and persuade the college to shorten an apprenticeship for a potential student without qualifications, but this requires a lot of time and motivation from the employer, which may not be available for the many micro-businesses in this busy sector. Additionally, many courses are already structured to work for a range of apprentices, so there are only certain ways colleges could amend them.

One-to-one apprenticeship and mentor ratio

Although there isn’t a rule that each mentor can only have one apprentice, many choose to operate in this way as it’s probably the most practical way to balance teaching with doing the job. However, this ratio does limit the speed at which the sector can grow using apprenticeships.

The challenges in the apprenticeship system we found through our research reinforce those identified in previous work by both Nesta and BEIS.

Financial investment

For example, the financial barrier to taking on apprentices was the second most popular reason that respondents gave for not offering apprenticeships in BEIS’s study (Figure 1). This was only behind “Not looking to recruit new staff”.

Figure 1: Reasons employers do not offer apprenticeships

Similarly, Nesta’s survey found that the second most common challenge that those who hadn’t taken on an apprentice anticipated facing was the cost to their business (Figure 2).

Desirable personality traits and older apprentices

Although we haven’t noted it as one of the main challenges, our interviews found that many employers have encountered apprentices or apprentice applicants with a poor attitude, little motivation and low willingness to learn. This was also reported in BEIS’s study.

Although it’s not covered in these words in Nesta’s survey, it’s likely that finding an apprentice with a good attitude, motivation and willingness to learn is what many respondents were alluding to when they selected “finding the right apprentice to fit with the role” as a challenge they face when taking on apprentices (Figure 2). This was the most popular challenge selected by respondents.

Some participants in BEIS’s study reported that older apprentices are more likely to have these desirable traits, making them more valuable and preferable to hire, but that it’s usually unaffordable to do so - a sentiment that also arose in our interviews.

Finding appropriate training courses

A common challenge that emerged from our interviews was the difficulty employers faced with finding appropriate college courses or using workarounds in lieu of course availability. Although this theme didn’t arise in BEIS’s study, challenges with finding appropriate colleges for apprentices emerged as a strong theme in Nesta’s survey (Figure 2).

Post-apprenticeship retention

Our interviews suggest that the risk of apprentices leaving an employer soon after finishing their course is very salient to business owners, but may not actually be experienced that much in practice. However, BEIS’s study suggests this may be experienced more widely than our research implies.

As part of this research, we came up with ideas for interventions that could address the challenges we identified. These ideas are focused on challenges and projects that Nesta may be able to work on, rather than interventions, system changes and challenges that Nesta may not be as well placed to make a contribution. As a result, these aren’t necessarily what Nesta believes to be the best solutions to the challenges, but instead are some interesting ideas for interventions that we could lead on designing, testing and scaling.

Local apprenticeship accelerator (employers get an apprentice for free)

Local funding pots that allow local businesses to take on an apprentice for free could be made available. Businesses could apply for the funding, and only receive it if they’re deemed to be a quality heat pump installer. This funding could address two key challenges in the apprenticeship space.

Firstly, the funding could increase the number of employers that can take on an apprentice, as well as make it easier for them to take on an older apprentice. But, crucially, it could create a groundswell of apprentices within the catchment area of the local college, giving them the confidence and demand needed to invest in running the low-carbon heating technician apprenticeship. This, in turn, could allow other businesses to send their apprentices on the course in the future.

There are multiple ways such a scheme could work. Funding could be consistent over the three or four years, or it could be tapered each year, recognising the increasing value of an apprentice to the business. Eligibility could also be tweaked to prioritise different types of employers.

Although national or local government could provide this funding, neither is likely to have the budget to do so. An alternative approach could be for those in the private sector, such as manufacturers, to provide funding. In fact, this is already happening. Vaillant is paying the wages of 10 apprentices, who they’ve provided to a number of their most trusted and quality installers in the same region. They’ve partnered with Derby College to offer the low carbon heating technician course to these apprentices, giving the college the confidence to invest in this new apprenticeship.

However, there’s an uncertainty that there would be enough heat pump businesses in the catchment area of colleges or local funding pots across the country that would want to participate. It may also be difficult to find a funding source that could commit to funding multiple cohorts of apprentices. Without this multi-year funding, there may not be enough guarantee of ongoing demand for colleges to run the course. Similarly, there’s an assumption that increasing course demand is enough to enable colleges to run the low carbon heating technician apprenticeship, and other challenges, such as a lack of suitable trainers, won’t be an issue.

Bring heat pump engineers into the classroom

A scheme to bring engineers that install heat pumps as part of their daily job into the classroom could be created. These engineers could teach parts of the course in the classroom, bringing lived experience to the training programme, as well as helping to improve the confidence and skills of college tutors.

This could be an important way to very quickly address the low levels of heat pump knowledge and confidence in college tutors, perhaps allowing colleges on the fence about running the low carbon heating technician apprenticeship to do so. In the medium term, it could also boost the number of heat pump trainers overall. As tutors learn from the heat pump engineers they may gain the skills and confidence to teach greater parts of the course themselves. This would reduce their need for a heat pump engineer to be present in the classroom, possibly allowing the engineer to go on to support another college or tutor.

However, there may be a number of challenges in making this scheme work in practice. Firstly, this is likely to add an additional cost to colleges that are already working with constrained budgets. There’s also no guarantee that those who are the best at installing heat pumps will be the best at teaching others or training the tutor. Working with heat pumps on-site and teaching are different skills. On a similar note, many heat pump engineers may not want to take time away from their job or business to teach..

Finally, although this scheme has the potential to increase the number of competent heat pump trainers available and encourage a few more colleges to offer low-carbon heating technician apprenticeships, it may focus too much on improving the skills of those already teaching heat pump-related courses. Although improving the skills of these tutors is valuable, a larger issue is to increase the number of available tutors so that the most appropriate courses can be provided by more colleges.

Group apprenticeship scheme

Many employers can’t afford the high costs of taking on an apprentice, and some also aren’t able to offer the full range of experiences an apprentice needs to fulfil their college requirements. These challenges can prevent businesses from taking on an apprentice and are particularly impactful on the smallest businesses.

These issues could be addressed by setting up a programme to match two businesses to take on and share an apprentice together. Not only would this split the cost of taking on an apprentice, but it could also allow businesses that don’t have the range of work opportunities needed for an apprentice to take one on. This could allow a greater number of companies to employ apprentices.

However, there are many practical and logistical considerations that would need to be addressed, ranging from how an apprentice’s time would be split between the two companies, to who would employ them at the end of their course. Relatedly, there’s also the question of how the employer who doesn’t retain the apprentice post-apprenticeship benefits from this arrangement. This raises questions as to whether they’d actually be invested in training the apprentice properly or if they’d predominantly use them for odd tasks and cheap labour. Finally, for this programme to work, the gaps in the experiences that companies can offer would have to complement one another. There would have to be enough companies with symbiotic gaps in a similar area for this to work, and this would have to be the case across the country.

Heat pump managed learning programme/career-change boot camps

A solution that could address multiple challenges that our research identified could be to create a managed learning programme (MLP) for heat pumps, similar to those that are used in the gas heating sector.

MLPs are often used as an alternative route to becoming a gas engineer for those who don’t want to undertake an apprenticeship. They’re usually 18-month courses that entail a mix of classroom learning and on-the-job experience with an employer. This makes them a popular choice for those looking to change careers. A similar arrangement might be especially beneficial for growing the heat pump industry at pace, as it could allow people from other sectors to enter the workforce.

As students would pay to enrol in a heat pump MLP, and the associated on-the-job work experience, this could address the financial challenges that employers face with taking on an apprentice. As with an apprenticeship, employers would still benefit from the ability to employ students that have done experience with them.

A heat pump MLP would also allow those who might be too far in their career to undertake a three or four-year apprenticeship to enter the sector. Not only would this increase the pool of individuals who could grow the sector, but it could also increase the number of mature entrants, who may also add value to businesses more quickly and at a faster rate due to the shorter course length.

However, it’s important to note that gas MLPs have a mixed reputation amongst those in the industry. If this is inherent in trying to fit heating and plumbing knowledge and experience into the structure of an MLP, then it may not be the best idea to pursue creating one for heat pumps.

It’s also important to acknowledge that many undertake gas MLPs with the hopes of becoming a sole trader. However, for many, it’s unlikely that a heat pump MLP will prepare them enough to run their own heat pump business. This isn’t an issue so long as the target demographic would be content finding - and working - for an employer after graduating. Relatedly, this solution assumes employers would be as keen to train and employ an MLP student as much as an apprentice, which may not be the case.

There are clearly challenges that employers and colleges are facing with running apprenticeships. These will be crucial to address if apprenticeship uptake is to be increased. Although this is an important issue to work on, we won’t immediately be diving into a full-scale project. Instead, we’ll take some time to consider how Nesta can best contribute to this complex issue, especially in the light of changes happening in the heating and apprenticeship spaces, such as the development of a new level 2 plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeship and the UK government’s incoming Growth and Skills Levy and apprenticeship rehaul.