HVACR Teaching Tips and Strategies

HVACR instructors are the backbone of the industry! You face many challenges , but finding quality quest lecturers or subject matter experts should not be one of them.   The ESCO Institute wants to help both you and your students stay current, with firsthand information, direct from industry manufacturers, and other subject matter experts. How? Join us for live and recorded training sessions conducted as part of our weekly webcast.   ·      Join us live every Thursday at 4:30 eastern for our live webcast ·      View previously aired episodes on our YouTube channel or on the HVACR Learning Network   Whether you join us live, have your students watch these videos at home, or in class, you now have a FREE resource of guest lecturers to keep you apprised of industry changes and technologies.   I hope that you and your students (the next generation of HVACR service technicians) will join me for Did You Know, the ESCO ...

All instructors aspire to effectively prepare our students for success in the HVACR industry. For effective instruction to take place, instructors must have knowledge in the content area, be able to effectively convey this knowledge, and the students must be receptive to this knowledge. A deficiency in any one of these three areas negatively affects the learning process. The key to addressing challenges in the educational process is first identifying where the problem lies. In this session, we will speak about some of the tools that will help you do just that.   HVAC Excellence provides instructors multiple ways of accessing data, allowing an instructor to identify if a problem lies with a single student, a group of students, or if the problem is indicative of an instructional deficiency. If you want to learn how to access and use the data that is readily available to you, this is a must attend session.   To access this free course, create your free account on the HVACR Learni...

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...

  Throughout the HVACR industry, employers continue to struggle to fill open positions with qualified individuals. It is time for us to try a new approach, it’s time for us to talk about COVID. When COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, many Americans quickly found themselves ordered to work from home or went from full-time employment to unemployed overnight. During the same time, a small portion of our workforce, which includes HVACR service personnel, were declared essential, and told to maintain their normal work schedule. To provide some context, the Bureau of Labor Statics tracks seven hundred occupations, of which only seventeen were declared essential. This places the HVACR workforce in an elite group of imperative jobs, that must always continue. When discussing the HVACR industry with potential recruits, it is imperative to include the following in any discussion. HVACR Personnel Service and Maintain: Equipment that stores, transports, and protects the nutritional reso...

There are many challenges in making the transition from the field into the classroom. To help instructors understand best practices for the laboratory and classroom, j oin Earl Delatte, CMHE, Patrick Murphy, Lem Palmer, CSME, and Tom Tebbe, CMHE, of ESCO Group for this free class. During the 38 minute course, they discuss classroom and lab best practices based on their years of experience teaching in the HVACR Industry.   To access this free course, create your free account on the HVACR Learning Network. Upon completion of this 25 minute course, a continuing education unit (CEU) certificate is available. https://hvacr.elearn.network/courses/classroom-and-lab-best-practices

Throughout the HVACR industry, employers are struggling to fill open positions with qualified individuals. This video discusses how to better recruit an under-represented demographic in the HVACR industry. Women represent almost 51% of the United States population, yet only represent only 1.5% of the HVACR industry. To solve the workforce shortage, recruitment initiatives must include a program that explains the opportunities for women in the HVACR industry. Join Sarah Hammond, Erica Lenour, and Angie Snow to learn more about ideas for recruiting women into the HVACR industry.

Students work hard to complete assignments on time. What students expect in return is your timely honest expert feedback and an appropriate grade. Students expect a rapid turnaround on their submissions. Returning projects quickly also helps the learning process. By getting feedback early, your students can utilize your constructive criticism more effectively. Notice the term “constructive criticism”. It is your responsibility as a teacher to build up, not break down. There are teachers who never return projects to their students. They might be very knowledgeable, but the impression is that they don’t care. This could be very far from the truth, but perception is reality. If you give your students reason to think you don’t care, that will become their reality. Only you know how busy you really are, so you should only assign projects that you can reasonable expect to return within one week. I always strived to return work within 2 class meetings. Always let your students know when t...

If you are looking for some ideas on how to recruit more people to the HVACR industry, we suggest you read this article. https://www.hvacrbusiness.com/overcome-workforce-shortage.html It contains some great ideas on recruitment, and areas many of us fail to mention when promoting our industry. 

 

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 ...

 

Those who lead HVACR programs are required to conduct at least two program advisory meetings per year to satisfy accreditation requirements. In most cases, however, they don’t fully grasp the importance of these meetings, let alone how to recruit the right people to participate in them and how to conduct a successful meeting. A well-run program advisory committee meeting provides the opportunity to convey your vision for the program, and how it will help your employer partners grow their businesses. The meeting allows you to clearly articulate the content of the program, competencies covered, the resources the program needs to accomplish its goals, and the skills that students will possess upon graduating from the program. One of the most important elements of a program advisory meeting is the opportunity to hear from potential employers about the skills that they desire potential employees to have. Valuable input from those who will ultimately be the consumers of your product, your g...

 

Becoming an Effective HVACR Instructor Series Have a Plan! Written by: Andy Erbach When developing a training session, having a written plan is the key to running a successful class. If you’re thinking, “I’ve done this many times, I can just wing it,” let me be the first to tell you, that this is a sure plan for disaster. Even training for simple tasks requires, at a minimum, that the trainer know what the learner should be able to do at the end of the training session. We have all been in the position of trainer when dealing with our customers.   For example, when teaching a homeowner how to change an air filter in a forced air system you: explained the procedure and its importance.   showed the customer the air filter. demonstrated how to access the filter frame. demonstrated how to place the filter in the frame and in the correct direction. secured the access cover for the filter. removed the filter you just installed and had the customer install it.   reviewed the ...

 

Becoming an Effective HVACR Instructor Series Transitioning from Technician to Teacher Written by: Andy Erbach Teaching has always been a part of our profession—whether it is teaching customers to use new technology, sharing a new technique or process with other technicians, or simply helping a coworker who needs some basic customer service skills; you have already served in the role of an instructor often in the normal course of your work. As you transition from a technician to a teacher, you will need to understand that as a technician your success was based on your performance, based on the skill and knowledge you developed over time. As a teacher your success will depend on the performance of others, those you instruct. It can be a little frightening when you first realize that your success is based on something you have little control of, but with the right methods and skills, you can become an effective instructor. Because your success as an instructor will be determined ...

Educational studies indicate that student learning is directly related to the quality of instruction provided. After publishing “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies” better known at the Theory of Special Relativity, Albert Einstein accepted a teaching job. However, according to Walter Isaacson in his Einstein biography Einstein: His Life and Universe, “ Einstein was never an inspired teacher, and his lectures tended to be regarded as disorganized ”. If true, t his is a perfect example of how knowing something does not make one a great instructor. So, how can institutions be certain that those who are teaching their students have both the knowledge and ability to deliver useful and meaningful training accurately and effectively? The answer is simple; encourage their educators to obtain certifications and credentials geared toward both content and content delivery. The concept of teacher certification is not new. Beginning in 1789 there became a movement to verify, through a creden...

 

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, boos...

Improving HVACR Student Outcomes When a person transitions from the field into the classroom, they are often handed a set of keys and told go teach HVACR. HVACR is not a single discipline, nor is it the same everywhere. In addition, teaching something requires a deeper understanding of the physics and theories than it does to perform the work in the field. To be an effective instructor; one must be knowledgeable in the content area, be able to effectively convey this knowledge, and the students must be receptive to this knowledge. A deficiency in any one of these three areas negatively affects the learning process. The key to addressing challenges in the educational process is first identifying where the problem lies. This session offered during for the HVAC Excellence HVACR Education Conference is being made available to everyone to help them understand the tools available to improve student outcomes. It shows how using the exams many of you already offer, help identify if a problem l...