Borough College's Plumbers Success

1.39.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 17th Jan 2005

Richmond Tertiary College hosted a national gathering of plumbing teachers on Saturday. Vincent Cable MP was a guest. The event builds on the College's success when it received a very high ranking from Ofsted and it is stepping up its efforts to train a high standard local young people to meet the acute shortage (and very high cost) of plumbers.

Vincent Cable said: "the usual preoccupation with academic achievement means that practical, technical training is often overlooked and is treated as something of a poor relation. But, these days, there are far bigger returns from being a qualified plumber, an electrician, a carpenter or builder than from many graduate professions. The College tells me that there is a very big increase in demand for courses that they are struggling to meet; sometimes from graduates or A' Level students looking for a career where there is real demand for their success.

"The college is doing an excellent job providing a centre for excellence in plumbing. Everyone in the area who has a kitchen fitted knows how important a service this is."