Preparing HVACR Students for Careers

-

The role of every HVACR instructor should be to help their students graduate and connect them with employers that offer a living wage, benefits, and opportunities for career advancement and continued learning.

Although technical skills play a major role in this process, there are other factors that must be addressed. To help aspiring students reach the top of our industry, we need to arm them with the technical elements that form the foundation for future employment and advancement, validate these skills through third-party national exams, and prepare them to meet the non-technical requirements for employment.

Soft Skills
A national study of HVACR employers showed dissatisfaction in the soft skills of many technicians. These employers stated that while technical skills are a requirement of the job, the ability to professional interact with their clientele was equally important.

Technicians who have received proper customer service and soft skills training, make more money, boost customer retention, and maximize customer satisfaction. Technicians who possess these skills are more valuable to employers, and their likelihood of retention and advancement substantially increases.

Credentials
It is essential that HVACR educational programs cover the skills, content, and competencies required for employment in the HVACR industry.

When an applicant submits a resume, it is often difficult to assess one’s readiness for employment. This stems from the challenges associated with creating uniformity from non-uniform, inconsistent grading, and instructional practices. To resolve this issue, many employers reply on third-party, nationally recognized credentials to document a person’s readiness for employment, regardless of their instructor, institution, or geographic location where they were taught.

Resume
Although resumes do not get people jobs, they sure do get people in the door for an interview. Well-prepared resumes will undoubtedly pave the way for job candidates to land interviews and sell themselves to prospective employers. At the interview, job candidates should be prepared to showcase what they have learned in school, what projects they have completed, and what credentials and certificates they have obtained. 

Comments

Post a Comment

This is a professional forum and we appreciate all comments being kept professional and in good taste.

Popular posts from this blog

Instructor Roadmap

-
Image
Many new instructors come directly from the field and, without guidance, are tasked with teaching one or more HVACR classes. Without direction, how can instructors be sure that their instruction is delivering what the industry needs?   To address this issue, many instructors will pose the following question during their program advisory meeting, “Does our curriculum cover the competencies needed by industry?”   They do so with the hopes and expectations of obtaining rapid affirmation that the program does indeed adequately cover the skills that those entering the HVACR workforce need. However, industry professionals attending these meetings are often presented with only a rudimentary list of the courses offered in the program and a very short period, often in the range of five to ten minutes, to accomplish this task. As a result, this all-important question often goes unanswered.   What the program instructors and administrators are seeking by posing this question is ...
Read more

It's All About Education and Training

-
Image
Serving the HVAC industry for 50 + years has been a tremendous honor. Having worked as school administrator, instructor, corporate trainer, contractor, and technician has given me the ability to see growth of the industry and its’ needs from different points of view.   Times have changed and we have numerous challenges ahead. Manufacturers want to reduce warranty cost. Contractors seek qualified technicians, technicians need quality training and professional development, the industry continually strives to elevate its’ image, recruitment of qualified individuals is an ongoing project. and consumers want quality work by certified professionals.   With rapid changes in technology, education delivery systems, hours available for training, and a skilled labor shortage, the obvious solution is training, education, networking, and partnerships. Education and training need to become the focal point of our industry. No challenge is impossible to satisfy. The secret is for every se...
Read more

Improving Student Outcomes

-
Image
One of the goals of any HVACR instructor is to properly prepare students to obtain challenging and rewarding positions within our ever-changing industry. To meet this goal, instructors must provide their students with the technical knowledge and skills that the industry requires of its workers.   All instructors aspire to effectively prepare their students for success in the HVACR industry. However, data indicates that there is significant room for improvement. Data from multiple equipment manufacturers, for example, indicates that bench tested items returned to them had no fault found in   82.1% of residential components,  67.9% of light commercial components,  28.6% of industrial components  and 10.7% of chiller components. Looking at this data, we can see that false warranty claims go down as the level of training required increases. A similar comparison can show that, as training is increased, warranty claims and callbacks are reduced, while system effic...
Read more