‘UK first’ green skills training academy to open in Sheffield
The Aira facility will offer apprenticeships and industrial upskilling to support the decarbonisation and electrification of residential heating.
Located in the White Rose Business Park, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, where the Swedish clean energy company has its UK base of operations, the site will welcome hundreds of recruits this year alone. These include new entrants into the sector and qualified gas engineers, transitioning them to heat pump specialists and green technology roles.
According to recent Parliamentary research, the UK has just 3,000 trained heat pump engineers, but will need some 28,000 to meet demand by 2028, with interest in the technology again on the rise due to the relaunch of the national Boiler Upgrade Scheme with an increase in the value of available grants to £7.500.
Within the next three years, annual heat pump installations will need to reach 600,000 to meet UK Government targets. Aira has now committed to hiring 8,000 clean energy staff, many of which will be plucked from the existing gas safe workforce of 151,000 professionals.
‘I’m immensely proud to open the first-of-a-kind Aira Academy in Sheffield, which enables our ambition to take Europe off gas by training the much-needed green skills workforce,’ said Pamela Brown, Aira Group Chief Marketing Officer.
‘By empowering the next generation of clean energy experts, Aira is able to deliver a complete end-to-end service with high-quality installations and the reassurance of a 15-year Comfort Guarantee with the Aira Heat Pump,’ she continued. ‘It’s electrifying to see so many individuals move over from roles in fossil-fuels to careers in clean energy-tech and we know this is just the start of a shift in paradigm to a more sustainable future.’
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Image: Benjamin Elliott