Heating & Plumbing Apprenticeships Are Broken — Here’s Why
- 1. How many heating & plumbing apprentices are there?
- 2. Heating & plumbing apprenticeship starts in England
- 3. Why the system is letting apprentices & businesses down
- 4. 1. Poor funding
- 5. 2. Colleges working on ‘borrowed money’
- 6. 3. Sudden wage increases
- 7. Why most employers are still saying no
- 8. When taking on an apprentice pays off
- 9. Why A Trade Beats University Now More Than Ever
- 10. Should you take on an apprentice?
- 1. How many heating & plumbing apprentices are there?
- 2. Heating & plumbing apprenticeship starts in England
- 3. Why the system is letting apprentices & businesses down
- 4. 1. Poor funding
- 5. 2. Colleges working on ‘borrowed money’
- 6. 3. Sudden wage increases
- 7. Why most employers are still saying no
- 8. When taking on an apprentice pays off
- 9. Why A Trade Beats University Now More Than Ever
- 10. Should you take on an apprentice?
Everyone agrees the trade is short of people. Yet a single plumbing apprenticeship advertised can pull countless applicants, and most heating businesses still aren’t taking anyone on.
Apprenticeships are an incredibly valuable opportunity for both apprentice and employer. One survey even found that 78% believe them to be vital to the future of the industry, but financial and time concerns are two huge blockers.
As a business, the problems with heating and plumbing apprenticeships are very real, but the answer isn’t to write them off.
We got into all of this with Daisy Turner on the Gas Engineer Podcast. Daisy’s a plumber and heating engineer who’s won national skills competitions, been a Screwfix Trade Apprentice semi-finalist, volunteered abroad and taken on brand ambassador work — all while holding down a full-time job and finishing her apprenticeship.
“I think a lot of people don’t shine the right light on the situation of apprenticeships. They are a brilliant initiative, but realistically, they don’t work that well.”
- 1. How many heating & plumbing apprentices are there?
- 2. Heating & plumbing apprenticeship starts in England
- 3. Why the system is letting apprentices & businesses down
- 4. 1. Poor funding
- 5. 2. Colleges working on ‘borrowed money’
- 6. 3. Sudden wage increases
- 7. Why most employers are still saying no
- 8. When taking on an apprentice pays off
- 9. Why A Trade Beats University Now More Than Ever
- 10. Should you take on an apprentice?
- 1. How many heating & plumbing apprentices are there?
- 2. Heating & plumbing apprenticeship starts in England
- 3. Why the system is letting apprentices & businesses down
- 4. 1. Poor funding
- 5. 2. Colleges working on ‘borrowed money’
- 6. 3. Sudden wage increases
- 7. Why most employers are still saying no
- 8. When taking on an apprentice pays off
- 9. Why A Trade Beats University Now More Than Ever
- 10. Should you take on an apprentice?
How many heating & plumbing apprentices are there?
Government apprenticeship data paints an interesting story over the past few years. According to the Joint Industry Board for Plumbing, plumbing and domestic heating apprenticeships are in a “worrying downwards trend” year on year, and the numbers back this up:
Heating & plumbing apprenticeship starts in England
New Level 3 apprentices per year, full academic years 2021/22–2024/25
Source: Department for Education, Apprenticeships (Explore Education Statistics). England, full academic years. Figures rounded by DfE.
Dropping apprentice numbers begs the question of whether the next generation of installers will be able to meet the Government’s ambitious goals within the heating industry, even if heat pump courses are picking up interest.
This trend has been noticed in the wider trades too, with the CITB criticising the apprentice levy on several fronts including apprenticeship starts dropping nearly half from 2016/17 to 2020/21 and an upwards shift of the money away from young entrants to instead training existing employees.
Why the system is letting apprentices & businesses down
1. Poor funding
Most construction trades have a helping hand when it comes to training an apprentice. For example, the CITB runs a statutory levy on construction employers and recycles it into grants, including apprenticeship grants worth around £2,500 a year per apprentice, plus a further £3,500 when they qualify.
Heating and plumbing work, though, sits outside CITB’s scope:
“If you’re doing other trades like carpentry, you can access the levies, but actual plumbing apprentices can’t.”
Heating & plumbing businesses can of course still draw the standard government apprenticeship funding every sector gets, and bodies like the JIB (electrical) and SNIPEF (plumbing in Scotland) run their own schemes. But there’s no equivalent levy-funded cash grant landing in the employer’s pocket the way CITB grants do for the wider construction trades.
This effectively leaves many small to medium-sized heating businesses on their own when it comes to wage and time-related costs, especially worrying since they make up the bulk of the heating industry. And, as Daisy explains, there are several benefits to having these smaller businesses take on apprentices:
“You sort of become a number… when you work for the big companies. The sole trader is a lot better because you get a better experience — you’re always with the same engineer, so they can guide you a little bit better.”
2. Colleges working on ‘borrowed money’
The funding problem runs through the colleges, too. A college only receives the full funding once the apprentice completes the entire course.
“The college are almost acting on borrowed money while you’re sitting your apprenticeship, in the hopes that we finish it completely so that they can get the last bit of funding,” Daisy explained.
When money is tight and drop-out rates are high, it filters straight down to the learner, including there not being enough assessors to get them through their end-point assessment.
3. Sudden wage increases
For the first year, an apprentice is on the apprentice wage. However, if they’re 19 or older and have finished that first year, they move on to the full minimum wage for their age. For Daisy, that meant nearly doubling her wage overnight.
“I’d doubled my wage, but I hadn’t doubled my work. The money had to change because the government said so. But realistically, I wasn’t worth that extra money yet. I wasn’t far off it, but I wasn’t quite there.”
That gap between what an apprentice costs and what they can produce is part of why taking one on can feel risky. However, having the proper systems in place and planning ahead can largely counteract this.
Why most employers are still saying no
Our 2025 industry report found that only 17.6% of heating and plumbing businesses currently have an apprentice, and only 23.4% would consider taking one on in the next year.
Put another way: the majority still won’t.
It would be easy to read that as employers being unwilling to take on apprentices, but the truth is probably a bit more nuanced.
“It’s not that they don’t want to pass on their knowledge, it’s that they financially cannot afford to have an apprentice. I know a few sole traders that would jump at the chance, but when you sit down and work out the financials and the time…”
As well as the bleak finances, there’s the training time an apprentice knocks off an engineer’s own productive day, and the general liability of having an apprentice.
Not to mention, the systems to set up and get an apprentice are far too complex for a SME to properly handle, again hurting the heating & plumbing industry disproportionately. Whatever help exists to guide employers through it is poorly advertised so that, as Daisy puts it, “no one really knows it’s there”.
When taking on an apprentice pays off
Daisy reckons an apprentice becomes confident enough to work through a task on their own at around six months, but the real return comes in the latter half of their qualifications once they can run jobs solo.
We heard much the same from the business owner’s perspective while speaking to Hollie (Hollie’s Heating) in her episode of the podcast.
After following through with an apprentice, you end up with an engineer trained to your standards, doing the job your way, who knows your customers and your way of working. Those qualities are hard to find in a new employee, and people tend to stay with the business that took a chance on them.
The key takwaway is to plan for the future and have good systems in place today to make the most out of the apprentices and your own time. We’re talking proper job scheduling, digital paperwork, clear job history tracking, and all the heating-specific tools offered by a job management platform like GES.
GAS ENGINEER PODCAST
Why A Trade Beats University Now More Than Ever
Should you take on an apprentice?
All in all, the problems with the apprenticeship system don’t mean you shouldn’t take one on. In fact, businesses that plan carefully and have the right systems in place are well-positioned to benefit in the long-run.
Read our full guide on whether you should take on an apprentice for a year-by-year breakdown of the economics and more.
Hear the full conversation with Daisy Turner on the Gas Engineer Podcast.