ID082 Qualifications in Sustainable retrofit

The Idea

The need to retrofit Britain’s aging buildings for sustainable energy generation, storage and conservation is well-established, yet often demands complex full-building assessments and design, as well as highly-skilled tradespeople. 

Within a broader skills gap identified in 2025 https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5901/cmselect/cmesnz/453/report.html, Britain has a specific skills-problem with insulation, particularly with regards to the historic buildings (pre-1919) that make up to 21% of residential properties, and which normally require often-expensive and specialist but non-synthetic vapor-open insulation materials. Designing appropriate full-energy retrofit to include generation, storage, and heating systems for such buildings requires specialist knowledge, moreover, and since 2023 will normally fall to university-educated 'principle designers' https://retrofitprofessionals.org/page/role-designer on construction projects. 

With a new engineering degree, and experience in renewable projects on and off site, and a city of problematic properties on its doorstep, this represents an opportunity for Keele. In collaboration with nearby colleges and independent providers, this strategic idea proposes to provide qualifications to a) engineers, architects or surveyors in retrofit design and b) skilled craftspeople on the retrofit of existing buildings - modern and historic. By combining the two portfolios, Keele has a chance to establish trade/design networks and facilitate improvements in both elements of construction, particularly given we can take advantage of existing infrastructure such as the Student Sustainability Bungalow and SEND. Research using the same facilities could aim to bring the cost of traditional, natural products down and improve them, enabling more people to insulate their properties with appropriate materials. 

Why This Idea Should Be Considered

There's a clear national need. The recent experience of government schemes, in which up to 98% of insulation installations have failed, point to a widespread need to train a workforce capable of understanding the complexity of insulation installation in a range of properties, and the professionalisation of the industry. Poorly insulated properties pose a threat to sustainability targets, and Keele can emerge as a leader in this field as it is increasingly professionalised and accredited. 

How We Would Implement This Idea

To do this, Keele could partner with local university-level providers at Reaseheath (where construction is already taught), or a sixth-form college, for example. Through a demonstrator site, it could go it alone. University diplomas could also act as a feeder for higher education degrees alongside existing foundation year provision: where incoming students have further education qualifications close to those required for Engineering, for example. Postgraduate qualifications may require little further outlay given existing expertise in the University.   

Short courses (Insulation, Heating and Storage, and Generation might be good candidates) would likely be recruited from an active workforce, and would best be taught either part-time, or aligned with a known seasonal quiet period for the sector.  

Postgraduate qualifications are more likely to be recruited from Keele's eventual engineering/architecture graduates, but could also recruit from other sector professionals in the region. 

What Success Would Look Like

A consistent stream of students through the courses each year. 

• Research that brings the cost of breathable insulation materials down, and their effectiveness up. 
• Establish the Potteries region as a leader in full home retrofit. 

Postgraduate students exiting Keele with an established network of future, trusted contractors. 

Many thanks to the reviewers from the Strategic Ideas College and the Peer Review College for their comments.