Bored office workers – including many with university degrees - are driving a massive new growth in demand to become skilled tradesmen, according to new figures.

Now a business in Greater Manchester is helping to meet that huge surge in demand by opening Europe’s largest training centre for would-be plumbers in Eccles. 

Government training agency Learndirect says it has fielded more than 900,000 calls in the past 12 months from people seeking a complete change in career, and encouraged by tales of high earnings for those helping plug the UK’s desperate skills gaps.

Meanwhile, construction projects around the UK are being put ‘on hold’ because of a lack of skills – with major projects such as the 2012 London Olympics forecast to make the crisis even more acute than it already is. 

Allen Jackson, MD of Building Trade Skills Centres (BTSC), said: “It is estimated that the UK will need around 4,500 newly trained plumbers each and every year for the next four years just to keep up.

“The challenge isn’t to find the people willing to be trained, it’s training them quickly and thoroughly enough for them to be able to meet that demand.” 

BTSC specialises in running private, intensive training courses, leading to City & Guilds NVQ Level 3 fully qualified plumber certification, BTSC’s own Master Plumber qualification and the ACS certificate in gas required to apply for CORGI registration.

Having established one highly successful centre just outside London, the first trainee plumbers to attend BTSC’s new flagship, 65,000 sq ft centre in Eccles started their courses this week. 

Thousands of trainees from as far afield as Stoke and Newcastle are expected to complete their 13 individually booked, one-week modules in the centre’s first year alone.

“It is no secret that there is a huge skills gap in the UK, with the country crying out for properly trained plumbers,” said Mr Jackson. 

“But the problem at the moment is industry needs those plumbers now, while many of the highly-educated people wanting to change careers can’t afford to wait two to three years to train via traditional means.

“That’s where our intensive courses and huge training centres – and there are none larger than the Eccles centre in the whole of Europe – come in.” 

Since launching its first centre in 2005, every trainee who has completed BTSC’s courses has been placed by the Company in employment.

Anybody interested in training to become a plumber should call 0161 787 3535 or visit www.plumbertraining.com
 

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 For further information, please contact Chris Marritt at Beattie Communications

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Notes to editors

• Building Trade Skills Centres was established in 2005 to provide the highest quality intensive plumber training courses anywhere in Europe.

• At 45,000 sq ft, the company’s first training centre in Chessington, Surrey, was Europe’s largest and most advanced.

• At 65,000 sq ft, BTSC’s new £2 million training centre in Eccles, near Manchester, is now Europe’s largest and most state-of-the art.

• Each centre is designed around 12 specially constructed bays, each of which can house a class of 12 trainees and will ultimately run 25 classes every week.

• Courses are split into 13 one-week, intensive modules, each of which includes City and Guilds Assessments and can be scheduled around most trainee’s other commitments.

• Both the London and Manchester centres are also equipped with state-of-the-art classrooms and exam rooms as well as self-study areas for trainees to use with trainers on hand.

• Both sites have been chosen for their excellent transport links, and attract trainees from – in some cases - hundreds of miles away.

• All BTSC’s trainers are City & Guilds approved and, to date, every trainee qualifying at Technical Certificate Level 3 has been placed in a job by BTSC’s full-time placement team.