Ideal Heating opens new southern training centre to accelerate industry heat pump drive
We’ve opened a new £1m training centre to serve the south of England.
Our Training and Technology Centre is strategically located close to the M1 north of London, meaning it is easily accessible for thousands of heating engineers across the South and much of the Midlands.
The new facility is at Insignia Park in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, just a few minutes from Luton.
It will be used by our Expert Academy training team to equip installers with the skills to fit, maintain and service domestic and commercial heat pumps.
We unveiled our new facility with a special launch event attended by representatives from across the heating industry.
Our CEO Shaun Edwards said: “Opening our new Training and Technology Centre means we can support even more installers with the transition to working with low carbon heating products like heat pumps.
“Our training facilities are best in class and this new centre features the latest testing and simulation equipment which provides installers with hands-on, practical experience.
“With our Expert Academy, we’re leading the industry to upskill the existing workforce and equip installers for the green heating revolution.”
Our new Training and Technology Centre features four spacious training areas, all kitted out with the latest equipment and technology.
The centre also houses a large conference facility and comfortable café area. There are also display areas showcasing our industry-leading range of domestic and commercial heating products.
Spread over 16,000 sq ft, the facilities and equipment include a live heat pump training suite and thermodynamic fault-finding simulators, giving installers hands-on experience of some of the common situations they’ll deal with when working out in the field.
The new hub follows the opening last year of our Bridgehead facility, first National Training and Technology Centre in Hessle, East Yorkshire.
The purpose-built facility was the first dedicated centre of its kind in the UK and is also focused primarily on green technologies.
With the opening of the sister southern facility, we now have flagship training bases in both the North and South of England.
Our Expert Academy has more than 20 UK training facilities, stretching from Fife in Scotland to Dorset in the south of England.
Our Training Director, Andrew Johnson, said: “Our training operations are focused on three key components.
“Firstly, creating best-in-class facilities for installers to learn in. The opening of this new centre offers exactly that and is a showcase for our unique offering to the heating industry.
“The second component is our team. Our Expert Academy trainers have 300 combined years of industry experience. Their level of knowledge and capabilities is phenomenal and is the key to our success in re-training heating engineers.
“Finally, we’re committed to delivering our training to installers either for free, or at low cost. We’re working closely with the Department for Education to provide Skills Bootcamp courses to installers, and we’re investing in our Expert Academy digital platform to deliver training flexibly and easily.”
We will soon launch a new advanced heat pump technician and fault-finding course, with the programme expected to begin in July.
To book a training course at our new Training and Technology Centre and view all of the programmes available through Expert Academy, visit: Commercial product training