Discounts on more than 1,800 training opportunities are available to employers in the building services engineering sector courtesy of SummitSkills and the Joint Investment Programme.

Employers and training providers can receive up to £171 worth of discounts on their training costs, providing affordable access to new skills to meet industry-specific competence requirements.

Particularly, employers are being urged to take advantage of the discounted training offers to enable their installers to reach standards required to qualify for registration with the Microgeneration Certification Scheme (MCS). Registration will become critical for installers who want to take advantage of the demand for environmental technologies as householders will consider MCS registration a guarantee of competency and quality.

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Bob Blake, operations manager at SummitSkills, commented: "If businesses and independent installers are to benefit from the many opportunities created by the Government's low carbon agenda, the BSE workforce will need to have the right accredited training and certification or they will be left behind. Now is the time for businesses to invest in their training."

Last year, SummitSkills and the Joint Investment Programme provided 900 opportunities for existing workers or newcomers to the sector to acquire new skills and expand their knowledge in environmental technologies.

The training offer runs to July 2012 and is open to employers in England. To qualify, trainees must already have reached NVQ Level 2 for plumbing or NVQ Level 3 for electrical installations.

(CD/GK)