Working in partnership with local authorities across the UK, The Retrofit Academy (TRA) is helping to facilitate the upskilling required to reach the targeted decarbonisation of UK housing stock to ensure warm, healthy, sustainable homes.
With more than a decade of experience in retrofit, TRA provides in-depth advice and support for local authorities, social housing providers and major retrofit employers on all aspects of delivering their retrofit targets. The team also has a thorough understanding of PAS 2030 and PAS 2035; the British standards to which retrofit projects must adhere.
“At TRA, we want to ensure people really understand retrofit to deliver high quality projects,” comments David Pierpoint, CEO of The Retrofit Academy. “We’re delighted to help support the built environment community by creating and inspiring a new workforce to undertake one of the greatest infrastructure challenges in history.”
Through the UK Government Funded Community Renewal Fund (CRF), TRA has been working with several local authorities, including Devon County Council and Essex County Council, to deliver programmes designed to kick-start the development of a competent retrofit workforce in each county. These programmes include conducting an analysis of each area’s housing stock, carrying out in-depth supply chain research to understand the “as-is” picture of retrofit skills, upskilling housing providers in retrofit and supporting SMEs to enter the retrofit sector.
Alastair Mumford, energy manager at Devon County Council, has been working in partnership with TRA over the last year to help on developing a retrofit housing decarbonisation strategy and comments, “We have found working in collaboration with the team at The Retrofit Academy to be hugely beneficial and the programme is helping to build confidence and upskill the retrofit supply chain in the area. The team’s knowledge of PAS 2035 along with their experience in retrofit has been invaluable throughout this initiative so far. The team has helped with research around local supply and demand, in facilitating strategies to increase the quality and delivery of local services, and in collecting and collating the data and statistics on the current building stock in the region. We have also benefited from important training across the sector, by working with social housing providers, SMEs and the local authorities in the area to ensure that retrofit is high on the agenda”.
Daphne White, head of sector development, Business and Innovation for Essex County Council who has worked in partnership with TRA in two CRF pilot areas for over a year added “The Retrofit Academy has worked closely with us every step of the way, helping to provide the evidence base, training and skills needed to grow a successful retrofit economy for Essex. Their approach has been flexible, working with our own Adult Community Learning provider to design a bespoke programme to address tutor shortages and to ensure continuity beyond the life of the pilot. The training offer for the programme builds on their extensive experience and has really helped to bring the credibility needed to inspire trust in the accreditation and training schemes”
Core to The Retrofit Academy’s offer is their suite of Ofqual regulated training courses from Level 2 to Level 5, which lead to essential qualifications such as the Level 5 Diploma in Retrofit Coordination and Risk Management and the Level 4 Award in Domestic Retrofit Assessment. TRA has been successfully delivering these courses since 2016 and through its CRF programmes in Devon and Essex, has delivered these courses to over 400 learners in those areas. In addition, TRA has provided opportunities for unemployed people through the provision of retrofit bootcamps leading to a Level 3 qualification and guaranteed job interviews in the retrofit sector. Positive feedback has been received in relation to this training and impact it is having on organisations in the sector, with one learner commenting: “My knowledge and understanding of retrofit has really benefited us as an organisation.”
TRA has also been working with training providers in Devon and Essex to establish their first franchised training partners, to ensure that retrofit training can be delivered locally in the future. The aim is to leave a legacy in each region by teaching local trainers who can, in turn, train a local retrofit workforce able to deliver safe, high quality retrofit projects. The Retrofit Academy will also work with its partners to attract funding that can be used for retrofit training locally. Discussing the benefits of this approach, Alistair Mumford added: “This has meant we are now able to provide these services locally and help with future training at some of our region’s Further Education colleges such as Exeter College and Plymouth City College. This has all helped with the county’s developing strategies in applying for future government bids to achieve our local low carbon aspirations and targets.”
The Retrofit Academy also aims to highlight the varied and rewarding career prospects within the growing retrofit sector, by working with those in the industry, such as large construction firms, manufacturers and the wider supply chain. Its national steering group, engagement with major employers, and its work to develop a Retrofit Careers Portal, all demonstrate that developing the skills and competencies needed for safe, high-quality retrofit that delivers the UK’s net zero targets requires more than the provision of training courses; it requires a holistic, industry-wide strategic approach to an urgent and complex problem.
