Fight for the future: Skilled skills endanger the heat turnaround!

Fight for the future: Skilled skills endanger the heat turnaround!

On April 3, 2025, the ceremonial relief of 36 new journeyman in the guild of sanitary-heating climate Kleve took place in the Uedem community center. In his speech, the chief master Michael Janßen emphasized the decisive role of the well-trained plant mechanics for sanitary, heating and air conditioning technology (SHK) in the implementation of the energy transition and the desired climate neutrality by 2045. In view of the enormous need for skilled workers in this area to further train.

At the lottery celebration, the new journeyman was not only equipped with their journeyman's letters, but also with tool cases. Achim Smets, the chairman of the examination committee, presented the certificates to the young specialists. One of the best graduates was Felix Janßen, who comes from a family of craftsmen and plans to strive for full-time championship. Jakob Rosen, the second best, appreciates the technical challenges in the industry and wants to get the technician part -time. Benjamin Rösl, third best in customer service, emphasizes the valuable personal contact with the people who his job brings.

need for specialists and abortion

The lottery celebration took place in a context that is characterized by an alarming skilled worker situation. According to reports from tagesschau.de, over 36.5 % of prospective plant mechanics break off their training prematurely annually. The main reasons for this are overwhelming, personal differences and wrong professional ideas. This high demolition rate endangers the ambitious goals of the traffic light government, which wants to install hundreds of thousands of heat pumps every year.

The training initiative "Starting Time" should gain young people for the craft and indicate the existing problems. The Central Association Sanitary Heating Klima (ZVSHK) even warns that an additional need for 60,000 specialists in the SHK area will be expected by 2030. This is particularly worrying, since only 50 to 60 percent of trainees in the SHK area successfully complete their training.

political support for the energy transition

Another important point that was addressed during the celebration was the planned 500 billion euros in infrastructure package of the possible CDU SPD coalition for the energetic renovation of buildings. In this context, Uedem's Mayor Rainer Weber called for more support from politics to promote the necessary growth of skilled workers.

The need for this political and social support is also underpinned by the criticism of industry experts, which emphasize the high effort for the installation of heat pumps compared to conventional heating systems. The installation of a heat pump is more complex and usually took a week, while the replacement of oil or gas boilers only takes two days.

The lottery in Uedem not only showed the success of the graduates, but also the challenges that lie in front of the industry. Against the background of the shortage of skilled workers and the high demolition rates in training, it is crucial to set the course for a successful heat transition.

The list of new journeyman includes:

• Ahmed Ibrahim (Moldering's house technology Kerken)
• Alan Zabek (Team Unkrig Emmerich)
• astrit Jakupi (Garbe Uedem)
• Benjamin Rösl (Georg Janßen Goch)
• Felix Janßen (Haustechnik Jean Heiming Uedem)
• Jakob Rosen (Michels Kleve)
• Benjamin Schnelting (Biermann Rees)
• Timo Jacobs (Heinz Goumans Straelen)
• and many more.

The craft the basis for sustainable energy future and should urgently learn the necessary support in order to master the challenges of the coming years. This is not only in the interests of the industry, but also for the entire society.