The SkillPLUMB competition has named Ideal Heating as its new headline sponsor under a three year partnership agreement to provide support and equipment for the event.
According to a statement, Ideal Heating has been an established partner of competition organiser BPEC for a number of years via its training centres across the country. Now as part of this new relationship to support SkillPLUMB, Ideal said it will be providing boilers, unvented hot water cylinders and heat pump test rigs for the UK final.
SkillPLUMB is aligned to WorldSkills UK, it noted, and those who excel at the 2024 UK event may have the chance to compete at the international WorldSkills 2026 event in Shanghai, China.
Andrew Johnson, training director of Ideal Heating, said: “By investing in SkillPLUMB we’re investing in young plumbers and upcoming industry talent, and importantly, introducing them to low carbon products such as heat pumps. This aligns perfectly with our wider company ethos of providing the best training and skills for all our installers across the UK. We look forward to this new collaboration with our established partner BPEC.”
Neil Collishaw, CEO of BPEC, added: “We are absolutely delighted to have Ideal Heating on board as our headline sponsor for the next three years – this partnership really cements the long standing and successful relationship we have with Ideal across their training operation. They have a significant commitment to skills development and this latest support of SkillPLUMB demonstrates this even further.”
SkillPLUMB’s national qualifying heats start on 15 May at Burnley College, with a further seven heats taking place across the UK. In July the top eight highest scoring competitors from the heats will be invited to take part in the SkillPLUMB UK final, to be held the week of 18 November in Greater Manchester.