Worshipful Co of Plumbers Annual Lecture Monday
15th May 2023Venue: Royal College of Physicians
The Worshipful Company of Plumbers held their 38th Annual Lecture – the venue being The Royal College of Physicians, Regents Park – a first for me and I must say wonderful premises.
17 Masters were amongst the guests – the theme of the lecture being “Who needs university when apprenticeships are better” – applicable to the heating and plumbing industry.
A thought-provoking lecture given by 3 industry leaders (CEO Worcester Bosch, CEO BPEC Group, CEO CIPHE).
The key take aways: Decarbonisation and emission reduction are driving needs for energy efficiency; there is a severe skills shortage in the heating and plumbing sectors; vocational training is essential; doing an apprenticeship should not be considered ‘2nd rate’ education; takes 4 years to get qualified; need 600,000 heat pumps installed p.a. to meet targets; UK houses have poor insulation on average; water waste from poor plumbing is significant and costly!
To achieve the targets set by Govt we need for 6,000 new apprentices each year – 3 times what we have now!
The Master Plumber Air Cdre Paul Nash then gave 3 awards to apprentices in recognition of their excellence in the heating and plumbing sector and he was happy to acknowledge that 2 of the 3 were females – a good trend developing in this traditionally male dominated sector!