Heating and cooling, still heavily relying on fossil fuels, accounts for about half of the EU energy consumption.

Respectively, the REPowerEU Plan, launched in May 2022 by the Commission, prescribes that “the European Union should aim at doubling the current deployment rate of individual heat pumps”.

REPowerEU forecasts indicate that approximately 20 million heat pumps will be installed in the EU by 2026 and 60 million by 2030; accordingly, on a global level, the number of heat pumps installed is expected to increase from 180 million in 2020 to approximately 600 million in 2030.

Heat pumps have already gained a substantial market share in some EU countries (predominantly Nordic countries and France), while others such as Germany and Italy offer incentives to boost the technology’s uptake.

Various EU initiatives, such as the EU Strategy on Heating and Cooling (COM/2016/051) and the recent REPowerEU Plan highlight heat pumps as a key solution for reducing GHG emissions from heating and cooling.

The availability of qualified technicians is acknowledged as a necessary condition for the projected roll-out of renewable ready technologies, including heat pumps (REPowerEU).

The HVAC sector is characterised by an ageing workforce and women under-representation (NESTA, 2022). Young workers (< 35) represent only a small fraction of the workforce (<6%). This creates the need to increase the attractiveness of the sector and debunk the gender stereotypes pertaining to HVAC roles.

Formal education has been quite slow in increasing the relevance and supply of training offerings to the degree required by the rapid adoption of heat pumps. Dual VET offerings, short-cycle upskilling programs and on-the-job training are recognized by industry actors as the most effective approaches to sectoral training (Construction Blueprint, 2018).

EHI (2022) identifies digitalisation, hybridisation, electrification, system optimization, and decarbonised gases among the most demanded areas of technical competency for heat pump installers.