Heat pump training centre opens in Barnstaple with Vaillant, Installer reports

North Devon College opened a heat pump training centre with Vaillant at its Barnstaple campus on 15 September, Installer reports. Installer says it is the only Vaillant training centre in the South West outside Bristol. For a heating firm in Barnstaple, Bideford or Ilfracombe, that puts a Vaillant training option in North Devon rather than at the far end of a long drive.

The facility is called the Low Carbon Training Centre. According to Installer’s report of 28 September 2026, the college will run specialist heat pump training for plumbing and heating professionals already in work, and its own apprentices will get direct access to the equipment. So the opening touches your hiring and apprentice training as well as the skills of the installers you already employ.

Barnstaple’s heat pump training bays carry current Vaillant and Glow-worm kit

Installer describes four training bays that can be set up in different ways, fitted with Vaillant’s aroTHERM plus and Glow-worm’s GeniaAir air source heat pumps. The college will deliver the specialist training for current plumbing and heating professionals through the partnership, the report says.

If you have an apprentice at North Devon College, that is the practical gain. Installer says the college’s apprentices will have direct access to the Vaillant and Glow-worm technologies they will fit throughout their careers, which means time on the units before they meet one on a customer’s wall. Installer doesn’t say which qualification comes with that time, or whether the new low carbon heating technician apprenticeship is taught in Barnstaple.

Installer also reports that North Devon College is one of four colleges in the UK partnered with Vaillant, and the only one in the South West.

Booking a place still depends on the course listing

What the report doesn’t give you yet: which courses run at Barnstaple, when they start, how long they take, what they cost, what qualification or accreditation your installer comes away with, or how someone who isn’t a college apprentice gets a place. The training for working installers is described in future terms, so the opening is the news, not a timetable. Funding came up at the opening event, Installer says, but the report names no scheme and no amount.

Those are exactly the details you need before you take someone off the tools. Course length decides who covers the work already booked in. Entry requirements decide which of your engineers can go at all. The price and the qualification decide whether it is worth it for your firm, and all four belong in the course listing you book from.

If you want to book now, Installer points working installers to myVaillant Pro for the courses on offer. Check whether Barnstaple is on the list before you pencil anyone in.