Training is the way to differentiate your brand of installation products

Training is essential in the installation sector. On the one hand, it is needed to educate and qualify installers, which is sorely needed due to the serious labour shortage in the sector. On the other hand, training is necessary to keep up with the continuous flow of new technologies and developments.

Manufacturers of installation products can answer the call by offering training to electrical installers. This provides the opportunity to improve customer intimacy and distinguish their brand, which is very welcome in a market where product differentiation is getting harder.  

But to know what sort of training to offer, more information on the training behaviour and preferences of electrical installers is needed. That is why we regularly focus the European Electrical Installation Monitor on training and ask installers from seven countries about the training they follow. 

About 8 out of 10 installers follow training 

The results clearly show that training is important in the installation sector. On average, about eight out of ten installers report attending training. That share varies somewhat per country, however. With 55%, Germany shows the lowest share of installers who follow training. In the UK, on the other hand, pretty much all installers follow training.

Installers in the UK and the Netherlands train the most 

The above only shows whether installers in certain countries follow training, not how many trainings they follow. Looking at the number of training installers that follow on average, a rather large difference appears. For five countries, the number of trainings per year varies from four in Germany to seven in Belgium.

However, the amount of training followed by installers in the other two countries is much larger. The average number of training is 16 in the Netherlands and a whopping 18 in the UK. Besides the popularity or sheer necessity of training, this also indicates that there is a rich offer of training to follow in these countries. 

Face-to-face training is preferred 

In all countries, there is only a small minority of installers who prefer to follow training online. And except in the UK, a vast majority show a preference for face-to-face training. In the UK a majority of 57% of installers report preferring both, depending on the topic of the training.

It has to be said though, that in the larger countries, like Germany, Poland, Spain and France, the share of installers that prefer both online and face-to-face, depending on the topic, is quite large as well; on average, around one-third of all installers. It is possible that if a topic does not necessarily require hands-on training, some installers would prefer online training over travelling long distances to training locations. 

Preferred topics differ, but new regulations rule in most countries  

The topic makes a difference in the way installers prefer to train, so which topics do the installers prefer? The answers to this question vary widely per country, showing the importance of focusing on the peculiarities of the local markets. One general topic that appears in the top 3 topics of installers in all countries except Spain is training on new regulations.  

For a full overview of preferred topics and ways of training in all seven countries and other insights into the training needs and wants of the European installer, we refer you to USP Marketing Consultancy’s European Electrical Installation Monitor.