Facts and Figures:

• The Construction Industry Board (CIB) are forecasting 29,000 Plumbers needed over the next 5 Years!
• It is well known there's a chronic shortage of professional plumbers, have you tried to get hold of good one recently?
• Over 6,000 Plumbers required in the South East of England. Right Now!
  
• Around 5,000 Plumbers retire each year and only 2,000 new trainees enter the trade!
• Over the past 10 Years the traditional plumbing apprentice route has been all but non-existent!
• Qualified, skilled professionally trained plumbers can earn in excess of £70,000 a year!
• Less than 1,000 plumbers entered the trade through the standard apprenticeship route last year!

It's a simple fact that the plumbing industry has been starved of new professionally trained and qualified plumbers for the last 10-15 Years. The average age of a qualified professional plumber in the UK is estimated to be nearly 55 Years old and the skills shortage is going to get worse rather than better as these plumbers retire.

Since plumbing began if you wanted to become a professional fully qualified plumber there was only one apprentice option available for a plumber trainee (and this is still the case today) a young apprentices has to go through a minimum of 3-4 years of learning with low pay (typically £9,000pa) along with day release one day a week at college which, for a youngster today is not very attractive (want it now!).  Other careers such as IT or Computing with fast track learning programs, home study courses, full time college courses and university courses allow them to launch as fast as possible into their new career and earn good money. This compared to a plumbing apprenticeship for a plumber trainee seems much more attractive.

Compounding this is plumbing apprenticeships are few and far between, as many as 80% of plumbing companies are one or two man bands and the average age of a plumber is around 55 they do not want the hassle and cost of employing an apprentice as they are all too busy earning excellent money (with Gas and Plumbing Skills around £70K per year) and planning their early retirement. In addition successive Governments have not provided the support to small local plumbing companies to encourage them to take on an apprentice so the plumbing industry has been sleep walking into this severe shortage of skilled qualified plumbers that the UK now faces.

The private training sector is trying to plug the gap!

As the traditional route for an apprentice plumber is still limited and not very attractive to youngsters and career changers a number of inspired private training companies launched intensive plumbing training courses. The best of these have been set up by plumbers who are passionate about their trade and want to ensure everyone in the UK can gain access to skilled, qualified and professional plumbers.

This is why The Plumbing Academy was launched by a successful plumber, Steven Edwards, who is himself, a professional plumber and CORGI Registered and still runs a very busy plumbing company today. For over 5 years The Plumbing Academy has trained and assisted hundreds of career changers and young people to enter the plumbing trade with the best balance of intensive plumbing training courses with the practical skills and theoretical knowledge and ongoing support. Could you be our next plumber trainee?

Some of the The Plumbing Academy students are now the most professional, successful and highest earning plumbers in the UK today. However, even though The Plumbing Academy is successful in providing the plumbing industry with great plumbers it is still a drop in the ocean to what is needed in addressing the shortfall. More professionally trained skilled plumbers are needed urgently and The Plumbing Academy is the place to learn plumbing for any aspiring plumber trainee!

Plumbers will always be required regardless of the economic situation as we have all got to be able to drink clean water, dispose of our foul water, bathe, wash and keep warm.

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