The Plumbing and Heating Industry Alliance (PHIA) and SummitSkills have issued a joint warning over the number of training courses that are misleading people into thinking they can become qualified plumbers in just a few months.
The fast growth of these initiatives comes on the back of extensive media coverage on skills shortages in the UK construction industry. While the shortages are denied by the industry in many parts of the country, the uptake has been immense. Many people are being lured from their careers by unrealistic claims of easy training and enormous salaries.

PHIA chair Chris Sneath said: “There is a real danger that some people will believe they are qualified plumbers after undertaking one of these short training courses.”

SummitSkills chief executive Keith Marshall added: “Some of the courses, which can cost thousands of pounds, are unlikely to enable trainees to achieve S/NVQ qualifications, and as such will not meet the industry’s standards.”

The industry considers the minimum acceptable qualification for a plumber to be Level 2 NVQ or SVQ.

Source

Electrical and Mechanical Contractor