Generation wait for Peter the Plumber

The adventures of Bob the Builder may have inspired a future generation of construction workers, and the plumbing industry – faced with a severe staff shortage – has decided to take a leaf out of the same book by launching a series of adventures featuring Peter the Plumber.

Some plumbers earn upwards of £70,000 a year, but despite the lure of a lucrative career the industry fears it may have difficulty attracting the 29,000 recruits that it says it needs to meet demand.

Enter Peter, a mechanical man made of pipes, joints and valves, the hero of a new range of books and CD-roms for children which plumbers hope will encourage more young people to join the profession.

In the ominously titled Peter the Plumber rescues Mum and Dad from a Flood, Peter has to save the day when a hapless housewife tries to fix a dripping tap in the middle of the night.

Robert Burgon, chairman of the Plumbing and Heating Industry Alliance education working group, which launched the books yesterday, hopes that they will encourage more young people to train as plumbers. "It's about raising the image and status of individual heating and plumbing engineers," he said. "We believe that if we can influence pupils at a young age about the importance of the work that plumbers do, then they will carry it with them throughout their lives."

The books are intended to be used in primary schools as part of their daily literacy hour.

Jack Wishart, chairman of the British Plumbing Employers Council, who runs his own plumbing business in Fife, said the public rarely had positive feelings about plumbers because they associate them with emergencies and expense. "We want children to realise that plumbers are professional people and hopefully raise the image of plumbers and heating engineers. Ideally children will go home from school excited and tell their parents about Peter the Plumber and the important work he does," he said.