Spirit

Over 95% of plumbers are males in the USA and the UK; more than two-thirds are over 45 years old; two in five want to leave the industry in the next decade, according to a new report.
With high energy prices here to stay there is unprecedented demand for renewable heating and cooling installers
Image problems in plumbing could stop recruitment of people needed to install heat pumps
Replacing gas boilers and switching to heat pumps is a central tenet of the Inflation Reduction Act in the USA, and the UK Government’s ambitions to be carbon neutral by 2050

The installation will largely be done by upskilling current gas and oil boiler installers.
But almost all plumbers are middle-aged white men close to retirement, a report has found, raising concerns that there will not be enough competent installers to reach the UK Government’s goal of 600,000 heat pumps being installed every year by 2028.

In the USA there are thought to be approximately 120,000 plumbers and 50,000 certified heating engineers, but onlu 10% of them are thought to be trained in renewables.

A UK study by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), found that plumbers think recruiting young people is important but that “if the same recruitment practices and promotional activities continue within the sector, the pool of potential employees recruited to grow the sector may be restricted and the lack of diversity may persist”.
Mica May, co-director of Stopcocks Women Plumbers, told The Telegraph that the industry “is not presenting an attractive face” for prospective plumbers.
“If everyone goes to university the country will fall on its face,” she said. “You’ve got people saying ‘only thickos go into trades’ and young people don’t see the skilled aspect of it.
Majority of plumbers eye retirement
The BEIS report found that the plumbing workforce is 95 per cent white and at least 95 per cent male; more than two-thirds are over 45 years of age; and two in five want to leave the industry in the next decade, with the majority eyeing retirement.
“How can this sector become diverse and representative when it’s perceived as a well-paid dead-end?” Ms May added. “How can it attract enough quality workers to meet the need? This needs not only training, but real funding and a huge cultural shift.”
Kevin Wellman, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Plumbing and Heating Engineering says “it’s going to be a massive stretch” to reach net zero goals with the current state of the workforce.
He said there are diversity initiatives in place, but that much more needs to be done to make plumbing an attractive proposition for young people from all backgrounds.
“We need to diversify, as well as recruit more of the currently dominant demographic,” he said. “The main challenge is to reach out to career officers to promote the benefits of the industry …

Many of us have bellowed ‘Go your own way!’ at the top of our lungs when listening to Fleetwood Mac, but it’s in that pause that we imagine just what going our own way might be like. Of course, in the context of the song it’s a defiant refrain to a love lost, but this is also what the emotional context might be for those who wish to get away from the artificial nature of self in the twenty-first century and instead experience something real.

How do you have the strength to go your own way, and what might this look like? Perhaps it’s purchasing a set of private number plates. For others, it’s feeling happy simply being who they are and liking what they like, such as a gruff forty-year-old security guard who just loves singing to musicals in his spare time. Perhaps we may not consider those two things to go hand-in-hand, but not caring about image would be a strength on this part of this person.

Going your own way, perhaps to the point where you may wish to live off-grid, can be an exhilarating and also quite worrying prospect if you’re not used to this at all. How might you find the strength to live this kind of lifestyle? We would recommend the following mindset:

A Question Of Values

Questioning your values to begin with can be a solid first step. What is it that is important to you? Do you feel that working in the corporate rat race and living in a heavily urbanized environment to be incredibly tiring? Do you wish for more land, or to be more self-sufficient, or to simply feel like less of a node in a machine rather than a living, thinking, breathing person? It’s important to understand what your values are, because when you have them in line, you can begin to generate principles that help you along this journey. Perhaps having your own land and the means to stay practically self-sufficient are important to you, or perhaps you lament the loss of privacy in urbanized areas.

It’s easy to feel as though you’re making the wrong decision if you haven’t yet considered things.

Being Unafraid

Being unafraid takes, by definition ,a little courage. This sounds completely tautologous, but it actually isn’t. Fear keeps you sensible, and it allows you to use your sharpest senses to make the best decision going forward. If your fear of trying something new is put in its proper place, that can revoke the power fear has over you. This is where you can become more of a maverick, allowing yourself to focus on sustaining yourself through perhaps building your own shelter, negotiating the deed to land or renovating an old house for your purposes. It can also help you with protective tasks such as marking out your property borders and …