Creating “good, green jobs for everyone” — How a team of female heat pump installers is leading the charge on heat pump installation

To ensure that every household in the UK who wants a heat pump can get one, we need to close the skills gap by increasing the number of people qualified to install them. 

We need 27,000 installers to achieve the current Government target of 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028 – nine times as many as are currently qualified in the UK. At the current rate, we would need 400 years to upgrade every British home to a heat pump. A more diverse workforce will increase the number of installers and help us to meet this demand.

As well as saving on household energy bills and reducing the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels, training the installers we need is creating the skilled, green jobs of the future and driving economic growth. But until now, women have been greatly underrepresented among heat pump installers – just 3% of installers are female – and excluded from these benefits. 

The team at Your Energy Your Way is working to change this, advancing gender equality in the sector by creating opportunities for women. Its founder, Leah, set out with two goals: to educate homeowners about renewables, and showing that this creates rewarding jobs for everyone. 

Your Energy Your Way has launched a training scheme to increase the number of installers, designed to be suitable for women, which offers hands-on training in a supportive environment with female role models. Now with three female trainees and two female apprentices, Your Energy Your Way is leading the way for gender equality in the sector.