"Both the present and future is bright for gas installers. Yes, big change is coming within our industry and we are already starting to see shifts in the heating mix, from oil and gas to greener alternatives, such as electric heat pumps and hydrogen.

Lucy Kirkby is centre manager at Total Skills, a brand new electrical training centre in Nottingham. The centre, set up in part of an old mill this summer, is already attracting learners from near and far and Tracy Harker, recently caught up with Lucy to find out how things are going.

Following the announcement of a new £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme, which will see 90,000 old boilers replaced with heat pumps, Mark Krull from LCL Awards calls for calm among gas installers - for those who want a career as a low-carbon heating engineer, gas installer training is the best place to start.

GMS Services was set up by Howard Parry in 1997. Prior to this he worked as a water treatment consultant, involved in all aspects of water hygiene. In the 1990s Howard helped deal with several high profile Legionella outbreaks, working for specialist legionella management companies.

In conjunction with the Heat Pump Association & CIPHE, LCL Awards has updated its range of heat pump qualifications, and introduced 'Low Temperature Heating and Hot Water Systems'.

Low Temperature Heating and Hot Water Systems is a pre-requisite to the heat pump qualifications.

Of the 2.7 million people currently employed in the construction industry only 13% are women and that includes all of the admin workers, personnel, marketing people etc. Women on the tools is probably as low as 1%.

A new report from the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) published in August, makes somber reading.

Research by the panel’s cohort of international scientists shows an unequivocal link between climate change and human activity.

We are now taking booking for an interactive CPD workshop to support centres in delivering our Level 3 award in Installing, Testing and Ensuring Compliance of Electrical Installations in Dwellings

In her role as Quality Assurance Manager at LCL Awards, Tracy Harker is often asked about training and qualifications for Trainers, Assessors and Internal Quality Assurers (IQA/IV) working in LCL Awards centres. 

As a result, Tracy has asked a provider of these qualifications, PM Training and Assessing, to help her facilitate an online workshop at 4pm on Thursday 23rd September.

We recently spoke with Peter Lambourne, Managing Director of Ecordia, the company we’ve been working with to deliver our new e-portfolio software, and Philip Harper, who runs CCTS an LCL Awards approved training centre in Belfast. Philip has tailored Ecordia’s software to meet the specific requirements of his centre.