Insightful and flexible, Liz Warren of SE2 added real value to our performance gap workshop and as a bonus, her blog of the event was picked up by the media.
Richard John, Knowledge Transfer Network
Training to be a Green Deal Advisor - a few thoughts on the journey so far
After a few years of deliberation about the best way to gain more practical, technical knowledge about the things I write about every day, I’ve finally embarked on my Green Deal Advisor training.
As a ‘new entrant’ I’ve combined the Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) and Green Deal Advisor (GDA) courses and, having completed the five days face to face training, I now just have another 365 hours or so of work to do!
Doing both at the same time like this means there’s a lot to take in, and it’s a bit scary that you could potentially start with no knowledge of domestic energy, complete the whole course in a matter of weeks (if you had no job or fun in the meantime) and then be off advising people to borrow large amounts of cash or to make big changes to their home. But that’s often the nature of learning a new skill or trade – you can’t get experienced without working and you can’t do the work properly without being experienced! Anyway, hopefully my five years working in the sector has given me some grounding…
One thing that was evident from the two courses is the significant development from the role of a Domestic Energy Assessor to the role of a Green Deal Advisor. Moving from merely assessing a building and its potential energy usage, to advising people about suitable measures to help them save energy, informing them about different finance options available (whilst being careful not to ‘give financial advice’), and helping them to come to a decision that could have a significant impact on their home. Through all of this, the assessment now has much more value to the householder: my trainer said that in doing 5000 or so EPCs he’s probably over ever had a handful of queries from customers, of the 20 Green Deal Assessment’s he’s done in the last few months nearly all of the customers have come back to him for more information. This development should generally be welcomed by the energy assessor, as the assessment and the role of the assessor now has more value.
In many ways, the GDA is really the key to the Green Deal, but I also think they’re the link in the process that bears the most risk and gets the least reward. The new assessor has to do a lot to make any money out of it - after forking out over £2000 for the training, potentially missing out on paid work to do it (equivalent of ten weeks full time!), equipment costs, lodgement fees (both for the EPC and to the Green Deal Assessor Organisation). If you’re getting paid £150 per assessment you’re effectively doing the first 100 or so assessments for free.
Ensuring assessors are well trained and have the right skills is vital to the success of the Green Deal but, from my own experience, it feels that there are elements of the process that are still not fully understood, even by the experts. This may be an issue with any innovative new policy, or it may be a result of launching a scheme before it’s fully developed – a debate that continues to rage in the sector.
I’m really excited about getting more practical retrofit experience - I’ll be looking for opportunities to work with friends and colleagues to develop my understanding, and, of course, thinking about what this new knowledge means for SE2 and our clients. So if you’re interested in helping me out, please do get in touch!