People who take plumbing courses may need to have a greater understanding of green issues in the future, according to one source.
Ian Byrne, deputy director of the National Energy Foundation, claimed this trend is growing rapidly in many areas of construction.
He explained that tradesmen who have taken plumbing courses might not previously have been expected to know about sophisticated green devices, but the state of the modern market is requiring them to learn new skills.
Mr Byrne said: "Plumbers and heating engineers need to understand solar water heating, biomass such as wood pellets and ground source heat pump systems."
In his opinion, the reason for this pattern is that environmental issues have become more mainstream and schemes to improve take-up of green energy generators are much more common.
This week, the coalition government announced the launch of the renewable heat incentive, which will provide quarterly payments over a period of 20 years for consumers who enter the programme.
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