UK: Hundreds of installers flocked to a series of Plumb Center Green Deal open days held across the country in association with its training partners Sevenoaks Energy Academy and NAPIT.
Intensive morning and afternoon sessions were held during August at venues in Waltham Abbey, Bristol, Grangemouth and Leeds, with attendees receiving presentations and having the opportunity to discuss their individual circumstances.
The presentations were delivered by Tim Pollard, Plumb Center’s head of sustainability, Richard Gould of NAPIT and Andy Brown from eTech, who developed the software for Plumb Center’s Green Deal assessment i-Pad application.
Mr Pollard said: “We’ve had a great reaction to the open days at all four venues. There’s a genuine interest from our customers in Green Deal, but also a great deal of confusion, which I hope we’ve been able to dispel.”
Plumb Center’s open days attracted a wide cross-section of visitors, but the majority were installers. “The interest has been such that we’ve filled these events by word-of-mouth through local Plumb Center branches,” Mr Pollard said. “This confirms our belief that the small heating installation business will be the key to the success of Green Deal. Many new players have appeared recently offering Green Deal training and other services. We are finding that installers welcome the involvement of an established, reputable brand such as Plumb Center. We’re someone they trust to help them to maximise their potential business.”
Plumb Center is guiding businesses that wish to become authorised Green Deal Installers to gain the required certification. It is also adding a Green Deal Advisor course to its range of accredited renewables courses already on offer. Catering for those with no relevant experience, and for skilled installers with Level 3 plumbing and heating knowledge, this course will be available at Plumb Center’s seven training centres across the UK.
“These open days have given our customers a clearer picture of what’s involved in Green Deal,” added Mr Pollard. “It also gave them plenty to think about in terms of how they will be involved in the scheme. Encouragingly, a number of installers actually signed up for the Plumb Center Green Deal Advisor course.”
