Green energy training centre opens its doors

The Green Energy Training Centre (GETC) in Wirral opened its doors in November last year and has begun its training courses in renewable energy technologies.


The centre offers training and qualifications in installing green energy microgeneration technologies such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and solar panels and heat pumps.

The GETC courses are being targeted at installers such as engineers, electrical contractors, plumbing contractors and heating and ventilation specialists wanting to improve their skills in green energy.

The £280,000 GETC is a partnership between Wirral based renewable energy products manufacturer Stiebel Eltron, North West training provider Scientiam, and the Skills Funding Agency.

The centre is equipped with more than £60,000 worth of the latest green energy technology to ensure courses are the most advanced on the market.

GETC’s Donna Dainton said: “Installers will have direct access to the technologies and will be able to handle the systems, de-construct them and put them back together.

“This way they will fully understand the practical as well as theoretical side of renewable energy system installations.”

The Government’s renewable energy strategy estimates that 160,000 new jobs will be created by the ‘green revolution’ in the UK by 2020 so there is a large workforce that will need the appropriate training.

Stiebel Eltron managing director, Mark McManus, said: “By 2016 all new homes built must be carbon neutral.

“So there is massive pressure on the construction industry to ramp up its knowledge of, and expertise in, green energy.

“But there is carrot as well as stick. Green energy provides a real commercial opportunity for properly trained installers.”

Alison Brown

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