Introduction
to plumbing
Thirty hours that take you from “I think I might want to be a plumber” to knowing exactly what the trade involves, what it pays, which course to take, how to get the experience nobody tells you about, and what the tools and materials actually cost. Work through it in your own time, pass the final assessment, and collect an EAL Learn+ Certificate of Completion.
Everything is included
- All six units, with interactive tools, calculators and worked examples
- The animated explainer, The Route In
- The 20-question final assessment, with unlimited attempts
- Your EAL Learn+ Certificate of Completion at 80% or above
- Unlimited access — work at your own pace, on any device
No entry requirements. No previous experience needed.
Who this is for
And who it is not forYou are deciding
You are at school and weighing up an apprenticeship. You are in a job you have had enough of and plumbing keeps coming up. You are already labouring on site and wondering how to turn that into a trade.
You want the whole picture — money, training, tools, materials — before you commit two to four years to it.
A licence to work
This is a knowledge course. It does not qualify you to plumb, and it does not make you competent — competence is assessed on real jobs over real time, and no online course can give you that.
What it does is stop you spending money on the wrong course, and point you at the right one. Unit 05 lays out exactly which qualification does what.
The six units
Work through them in orderWhere the 30 hours go
Guided study, activity, independent work| Unit | Reading & video | Interactive activity | Independent study | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 — Careers in plumbing | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 5 |
| 02 — The basics: how a system works | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 5 |
| 03 — Materials and pipework | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 5 |
| 04 — Tools and what you need | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.0 | 4 |
| 05 — Courses and qualifications | 2.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 5 |
| 06 — Experience, costs and money | 2.0 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 5 |
| Final assessment | — | 1.0 | — | 1 |
| Total | 11.5 | 9.5 | 9.0 | 30 |
Independent study means the work you do away from the screen: researching local apprenticeship vacancies, pricing a kit at your nearest merchant, ringing three training providers, writing a CV. Those tasks are set at the end of each unit and they are where a fair amount of the value sits.
The explainer
2 minutes 50The Route In
An animated walk through the four ways people get into plumbing, what each one costs, how long each takes, and the one step nobody can buy their way past. Captioned, and it runs offline.
Watch the explainerYour certificate
80% to passThe course ends with a 20-question final assessment drawn from all six units. Score 16 out of 20 or better and your EAL Learn+ Certificate of Completion is issued immediately, carrying your name, the date, a certificate reference and your score. Print it or save it as a PDF.
If you do not pass first time, every question is marked up with the correct answer and the reason behind it, so the assessment doubles as revision. Go back over the units that caught you out and sit it again. There is no limit and no extra charge.
It records completion of a 30-hour structured learning activity. It is not a regulated qualification and it does not confer competence to carry out plumbing, gas or other restricted work — the certificate itself says so. What it does is evidence to an employer or a training provider that you have done your homework before turning up, which is more than most applicants can show.
Questions people ask
Before enrolling- Do I need any qualifications to start?
- None. No entry requirements, no previous experience, no tools.
- How long do I have to finish it?
- As long as you like. It is self-paced and access does not expire. Most people take three to six weeks doing an hour or two at a time.
- Will this let me work as a plumber?
- No, and be suspicious of any short course that claims it will. This gives you the knowledge to choose the right route; Units 05 and 06 tell you exactly what that route is and what it costs.
- Is there any practical work?
- Not in this course — it is a knowledge course you can do at a kitchen table. The independent study tasks push you out to merchants, training providers and local installers, which is the closest thing to practical you can do before you are on site.
- What if I fail the final assessment?
- Sit it again, as many times as you need, at no extra cost. Every question is explained after marking.
- Does it work on a phone?
- Yes. Every page, every calculator and the video all work on a phone, a tablet or a laptop, and the whole course runs offline once loaded.
Produced for EAL Learn+.
Introduction to Plumbing — a 30-hour pre-apprenticeship short course.