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Independent Repair Partner

Let's talk it through

Nothing to commit to at this stage. Tell us where you're based and we'll come back to you about whether it's likely to work in your area.

Any experience? *

Sending an enquiry does not commit you to the programme or reserve a place. We will discuss suitability, local demand and the programme requirements with you before any decision.

We'll only use these details to talk to you about the programme. See our privacy policy.

Independent Repair Partner Programme

Train as an appliance engineer. Build a business that's genuinely your own.

An appliance engineer with a tool bag over his shoulder walking up a residential driveway, his own sign-written van behind him listing the appliances he repairs

Programme fee

£12,000 including VAT

£10,000 programme fee + £2,000 VAT.

Vehicle, insurance, travel, accommodation and ongoing business costs are additional and remain your responsibility.

The NAC Independent Repair Partner Programme combines appliance-repair training, supervised field experience, equipment and business-launch support. It is designed for people who want to establish an independent repair business, with access to suitable NAC work in an approved service area while developing their own customer base.

No previous appliance-repair experience required

Admission is subject to suitability and service-area assessment.

Why we built it

Training is only the first step.

City & Guilds

Assured training centre

The same centre we put our own engineers through.

Learning to diagnose and repair appliances is one part of establishing a repair business. You also need equipment, practical experience, operating processes and a way to reach customers.

The IRP programme brings those elements together, with technical support and opportunities to undertake suitable NAC repairs after competency approval, alongside the customer base you build yourself.

  1. 1

    Train & mentor

    Two weeks of foundation training, then two to four weeks on genuine customer visits alongside a working NAC engineer who is doing the job. Training is multi-brand rather than one manufacturer, and covers practical fault diagnosis and safe working practices.

  2. 2

    Equip

    A professional repair toolkit, electrical test equipment, PPE and your initial workwear, all part of the programme fee, not billed on top. You provide your own van, insurance and a compatible phone or tablet, and you cover your running costs from day one, as an independent business.

  3. 3

    Launch

    Branding, digital setup and local-marketing support where required. NAC-provided websites remain NAC-owned and generate NAC-supplied repairs. You can also establish your own independent channels. See Digital Assets for the ownership and lead-routing arrangements.

  4. 4

    Back-up

    Technical support from the same people who trained you, and operational onboarding so you know how the work runs before you take any on. ServiceMate is included for managing NAC-supplied jobs, and technical help stays available once you are working.

What's included

What the £12,000 actually covers…

Foundation Training and supervised field experience, the kit to do the job properly, the basics of a trading business, and a route to suitable NAC work after competency approval.

A typical initial programme of four to six weeks

Two weeks of Foundation Training, then two to four weeks of supervised field experience.

Completing the training does not automatically authorise independent NAC work. Release depends on meeting documented competency, safety, insurance and other programme requirements. We explain assessment and reassessment arrangements before you commit.

Technical training

  • Two weeks of NAC Foundation Training
  • Multi-brand, not one manufacturer
  • Practical fault diagnosis
  • Safe working practices

Real field experience

  • Two to four weeks with an engineer
  • Supervised field experience
  • Repair process and customer handling
  • Competency assessment before release

Programme fee

£12,000 including VAT

£10,000 programme fee + £2,000 VAT.

Vehicle, insurance, travel, accommodation and ongoing business costs are additional and remain your responsibility.

The kit to do the job

  • Professional repair toolkit
  • Electrical test equipment
  • PPE
  • Your initial workwear

Business-launch support

Branding, digital setup and local-marketing support where required. You can establish your own independent online channels or use NAC-provided channels.

NAC-provided websites and booking routes remain NAC-owned and generate NAC-supplied repairs, paid under the agreed job-payment terms.

See Digital Assets for details.

NAC work and job management

Access to suitable NAC work in your approved area, subject to demand and approval.

ServiceMate access for NAC-supplied work is included. You provide your own compatible smartphone or tablet.

Optional ServiceMate use for your independently generated work requires a separate paid subscription to ServiceMate UK Ltd, with your private work kept in a separate environment.

Back-up when you need it

  • Technical support when you're stuck
  • Operational onboarding
Digital assets

Your online presence: understand the two routes

Digital assets you provide

Stays yours

You can provide and operate your own website, domain, telephone number, social-media accounts and booking process.

Those independently provided assets remain yours. You set your own prices and retain the revenue from work you genuinely generate independently.

NAC takes no royalty or commission on that independent work.

Digital assets NAC provides

Stays NAC-owned

Where NAC provides a website, domain, content, telephone number, social-media page or booking route, the supplied assets remain NAC-owned unless a separate written transfer is agreed.

Enquiries through NAC-owned channels are handled by NAC. Resulting repairs allocated to you are NAC-supplied jobs, paid under the agreed NAC commercial terms.

Using your local business identity on an asset does not, by itself, transfer ownership to you.

If the relationship ends

We explain the ownership and lead-routing arrangements before you commit. If the NAC relationship ends, NAC may retain, rebrand or redirect its assets and enquiries. Any sale or transfer to a departing partner is a separate decision for NAC and is not automatically included.

Whose business is it

Build your own business, with NAC support.

The IRP programme combines training, equipment, practical experience and business-launch support with opportunities to undertake NAC repairs as an independent subcontractor. You can operate under your own trading identity, develop your own customer base, set prices for your independently generated work and work for other businesses. NAC sets the service standards and commercial terms for NAC-supplied repairs. You do not purchase an exclusive territory.

What NAC takes

0%

No ongoing NAC royalty or commission on revenue from work you genuinely generate independently.

  • No royalty
  • No turnover cut
  • No commission

What you keep

100%

You retain the revenue from your independently generated work and remain responsible for your own business costs and taxes.

  • Your trading name
  • Your customers
  • Your pricing
  • Your invoices
  • Your revenue

Your availability, with agreed NAC appointments and commitments honoured

Work generated through NAC-owned websites, telephone numbers and booking channels is NAC-supplied work. The agreed NAC job-payment terms apply. See Digital Assets for the ownership and lead-routing arrangements.

You trade under your own business identity. Any use of NAC logos, badges, vehicle graphics or other NAC branding requires prior written approval.

Work while you build

The first few months are the hard part. That's where we come in.

Starting out, your own phone isn't ringing yet. Where we have demand in your approved area and you're working to standard, we can put NAC repair jobs your way while you build a customer base of your own.

What the programme offers

Access to suitable NAC repair work

We assess demand in your proposed service area and discuss the workload we reasonably expect may be available before you commit. There is no guaranteed minimum volume.

How the balance is meant to shift

NAC work Your own customers

Starting out

Developing

Longer term

Illustration of possible workload choices, not a forecast of customer growth or work availability.

  1. 1

    Starting out

    More NAC work, while you get your own name known locally.

  2. 2

    Developing

    NAC work alongside a growing base of your own customers.

  3. 3

    Longer term

    You choose the balance that suits the business you've built.

Read this part properly

  • Work is not guaranteed, and there is no minimum.
  • We assess demand in your area before accepting you. If it isn't there, we will tell you.
  • Volume moves with demand, availability and performance.
  • As your own customer base develops, you can choose to reduce the capacity you make available for NAC work, subject to the agreement's notice requirements and completion of existing commitments.
How you get paid

Two kinds of work, two sets of rules.

For NAC-supplied repairs the customer contracts with NAC: NAC sets the charging structure, takes the payment, and NAC's parts and process requirements apply. For work you generate independently the customer contracts with your business, you set the price and you keep the revenue. NAC pays you for NAC-supplied jobs through the agreed self-billing process.

Customer contract
NAC-supplied repairs The customer contracts with NAC.
Independently generated repairs The customer contracts with your business.
Customer pricing
NAC-supplied repairs NAC sets the customer charging structure.
Independently generated repairs You set your customer's price.
Customer payment
NAC-supplied repairs The customer pays NAC.
Independently generated repairs The customer pays your business.
Parts and repair process
NAC-supplied repairs NAC's parts and process requirements apply.
Independently generated repairs You manage your own business's parts and repair process.
Your revenue
NAC-supplied repairs NAC pays your business through the agreed self-billing process and Commercial Schedule.
Independently generated repairs You retain your customer revenue. NAC takes no royalty or commission.

Current proposed NAC job payments

  • £50 per payable completed NAC job
  • £30 for an additional appliance, where applicable

The Commercial Schedule explains which outcomes qualify for payment, the self-billing cycle, VAT treatment and the rules for additional appliances, recalls and unrelated new faults. A job offer or attendance does not automatically mean a standard job fee is payable.

Recalls

Genuine workmanship recalls do not attract another standard job fee. A new or unrelated fault is treated separately under the Commercial Schedule where NAC charges the customer for a new job.

Who it suits

We want people worth training, not people who know it all.

You don't need any appliance repair background. Plenty of the people this suits have never picked up a multimeter. The technical side is what the training is for.

Trainees in an appliance engineering workshop working on stripped-down washing machines, fridges and dryers

This tends to suit someone who is

  • Thinking seriously about a practical career change
  • Drawn to working for yourself
  • Comfortable dealing with customers face to face
  • Practical, and good at working a problem out
  • Genuinely willing to learn
  • Reliable and professional
  • Interested in building something local

What matters more is how you handle yourself in someone's kitchen at four o'clock on a Friday when a repair has gone sideways.

If that sounds like you, it costs nothing to ask what's involved.

The journey

From first enquiry to your own customers

  1. 1

    Apply

    Tell us about yourself and where you're based.

  2. 2

    Talk it through

    An honest conversation about whether it fits.

  3. 3

    Area assessment

    We check demand where you are, before you commit.

  4. 4

    Acceptance

    We confirm a place on the programme.

  5. 5

    Foundation Training

    Two weeks of multi-brand appliance-repair training, including diagnosis and safe working practices.

  6. 6

    Field experience

    Normally two to four weeks of supervised field experience alongside an NAC engineer, depending on progress.

  7. 7

    Competency assessment

    Assessment against documented standards. Independent NAC work requires approval; attendance alone does not guarantee release.

  8. 8

    Launch your business

    Branding, online presence and the kit to trade.

  9. 9

    Independent operation

    Launch your business and receive suitable NAC work where available, once the relevant approval and onboarding requirements are met.

  10. 10

    Build your own

    Your customers, your pricing, your revenue.

Where you'll work

An area we agree with you, not one we sell you.

We don't sell territory. Before you commit a penny, we look at whether there's realistic demand where you are.

Map of the United Kingdom showing where NAC already operates

What we look at

  1. 1 Where you're based
  2. 2 Demand in that area
  3. 3 Coverage we already have
  4. 4 A sensible travel distance
  5. 5 How much work you want

If the demand isn't there, we'd rather tell you than take your money and hope it works out.

Appliances you'd cover

  • Washing machines
  • Washer dryers
  • Tumble dryers
  • Dishwashers
  • Fridges and freezers
  • Electric ovens and cookers
  • Electric hobs
  • Microwaves

Appliance categories are subject to individual competency approval and NAC's permitted work scope. Gas and dual-fuel training is not included. Gas Safe registration alone does not authorise an IRP to undertake gas or dual-fuel jobs for NAC.

Why us

We already train engineers. This is the same thing, pointed differently.

We're an independent, family-run UK appliance repair business, and we train the engineers who work for us. This programme takes that same capability and puts it behind people who want to run their own business rather than join ours.

City & Guilds Assured training centre

Recognised training credibility for people coming in new to the trade. It's the same centre we put our own engineers through, not a separate course built to be sold.

Trusted to train other people's engineers

British Gas has used NAC for multi-brand engineer training. Teaching engineers who didn't come up through our own business isn't new to us.

Independent and family-run

We're a repair business first. The training exists because we needed it for our own engineers, and it's still how we staff our own vans, not a product built to be sold.

Deep multi-brand experience

Our engineers work across the major appliance brands every day, which is what keeps the training practical and makes the technical support worth ringing.

The honest bit

What we'd want you to think hard about

You'd be putting £12,000 including VAT into this, so here is the straight version rather than the sales version.

  • An independent business, not a salaried vacancy

    The programme is intended for people establishing and operating an independent repair business. NAC-supplied jobs are paid under the IRP Agreement rather than through an advertised salary. You remain responsible for your business's operating costs. Nothing in the programme excludes rights or obligations that apply by law.

  • The running costs are yours

    Vehicle, fuel, insurance, working capital and everything else it takes to keep a business on the road.

  • Appliance scope is approval-dependent

    Appliance categories are subject to individual competency approval and NAC's permitted work scope. Gas and dual-fuel training is not included, and Gas Safe registration alone does not authorise an IRP to undertake gas or dual-fuel jobs for NAC.

  • NAC work is not guaranteed

    It depends on demand in your area, your availability and how you're performing. There is no minimum.

  • Your own customers take time

    Starting out, your phone isn't ringing yet. Building a base of your own is the work, and NAC jobs are there to bridge that, not to replace it.

  • Understand the programme before committing

    Before you decide to join, we will provide the programme specification, written service-area assessment, payment terms, cancellation information and IRP Agreement. These explain what is included, the assessment process, digital-asset ownership and how NAC-supplied work operates.

Think this might be your next move?

Sending an enquiry does not commit you to the programme or reserve a place. We will discuss suitability, local demand and the programme requirements with you before any decision.