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As gas fitters leave the industry, housing providers must pay higher and higher fees for this essential maintenance service. Faced with this problem, Mark Northridge, assistant manager in the gas section of Nottingham Community Housing Association, decided to set up a training school for gas fitters.

The school opened in September 2001 and now trains 100 staff each year from all over the east of England. Last year, it made a profit of £7000, which will be invested in an apprenticeship scheme for gas fitters.

Other housing associations can repeat NCHA's success, Northridge believes, as long as they are prepared to put in the hard work to begin with. "The single most important thing is cost," warns Northridge. "Good accommodation, favourable deals with suppliers and doing it yourself wherever you can will go a long way to making a successful centre."

Location, location, location
Where to put the school is an important factor in keeping the costs down. Northridge spent two months searching NCHA's stock for a suitable location. He recommends using your own staff to convert it as far as possible – it's cheaper and you can ensure the quality of the job.

You will need at least two rooms: one for training and one for assessing. Assessment and training cannot be done in the same room or those being assessed would have already worked on the equipment.

Northridge also recommends checking with surrounding residents "because having a gas fitting training room next to you might not be that desirable".

Bring it up to scratch
Once you've got your site and your suppliers sorted, the centre must be fitted and checked. The cheapest way is to do it yourself. "I used our direct engineering staff to fit it and, as I am qualified, I did a lot of it myself," says Northridge. Remember to build faults into the system so your students can learn how to repair them.

Corgi, the gas watchdog, must inspect the centre before it can begin to take in students. Once the property is up to an acceptable standard, the centre will be free to open, although Corgi will still carry out annual inspections.

It's not what you know …
You need to find suitable partners to supply equipment and train and assess staff. "Having such strong relationships with the suppliers really helped the cause," says Northridge. "I worked very closely with all the suppliers and consultants and was constantly talking to them about what we were going to do."

Northridge contacted boiler manufacturer Baxi, heating merchant Tricom and training consultant Flame Technologies, all of which offered their services for free in return for use of the centre. At the moment, the training centre is sublet to Flame Technologies, which pays £200 a week.

If you don't want to use your existing suppliers, Northridge believes the local council is a good source of information on companies who can offer gas maintenance services. You can also ask Corgi for advice.

When you are negotiating, bear in mind that your suppliers stand to gain from the centre in terms of free advertising and being able to use it to train their own staff. "We had gone into the negotiations expecting to pay, but they realised the opportunity and offered it for nothing," says Northridge.

Making a profit
You can sublet to cover your costs, and you are not limited to renting the space to your suppliers – there may be local companies willing to pay to use it.

Northridge initially wanted to break even and charged suppliers accordingly, but the centre turned out to be much more popular than he expected. "Because the cost of the training centre so low and we rented it out for longer, we found money left over," he says. He estimated that it could be used 26 weeks a year for £100 a week, but it is now rented for 40 weeks for £200 a week.