How are you trained?

Glen

Substantial changes are being considered by our provincial government re trades training. They are looking towards an industry driven, accountable yet completely flexible model that responds to market conditions. That said, and having been trained in the traditional model of time served with annual technical schooling until meeting the requirements of the TQ - I can see some merits in making trades training more flexible - especially in the delivery of technical training in rural areas. So the question is (questions are) - how were you trained? What works in your area? Is it publically supported (paid by local government) or is all training paid by the individual. Are there components from one trade that you think should be common to all trades? Is multi-tasking becoming a buzz word in your area? And finally - if the trades are changing - who is driving the change??? Email me directly if you like - I plan to collate the material & use it in a presentation to the Industrial Training taskforce here in B.C. Thanks -

Dan Law

Training

> Substantial changes are being considered by our

> provincial government re trades training. They

> are looking towards an industry driven,

> accountable yet completely flexible model that

> responds to market conditions. That said, and

> having been trained in the traditional model of

> time served with annual technical schooling until

> meeting the requirements of the TQ - I can see

> some merits in making trades training more

> flexible - especially in the delivery of

> technical training in rural areas. So the

> question is (questions are) - how were you

> trained? What works in your area? Is it

> publically supported (paid by local government)

> or is all training paid by the individual. Are

> there components from one trade that you think

> should be common to all trades? Is multi-tasking

> becoming a buzz word in your area? And finally -

> if the trades are changing - who is driving the

> change??? Email me directly if you like - I plan

> to collate the material & use it in a

> presentation to the Industrial Training taskforce

> here in B.C. Thanks -

Dan Law

Training

Glen,

You've struck a cord near and dear to my heart. I, like most of the HVAC folks I know of, have recieved training through a mixture of sources. Some military, some public trade schools, or community colleges, some through union apprenticeship. Most would be some combination of these along with training recieved from the various employers they happen to have worked for. I.E. a guy might work for a Burnham dealer and recive a large amount of Burnham training, while another might go to work for a refrigeration company and be sent to Hussman factory training for refrigerated cases. It's all very subjective and unstructured. I have been a member of a contractor advisory comitte re: training for service appretices through our local union. The discussions we had were pretty insightfull I thought, and brought the following points to light: 1) no 2 apprentices are at the same level of developement. One might be fresh out of high school, another might have been working with his uncle for 2-3 yrs and is now ready to get serious. Still another might have been running service calls for 2 years and wants to formalize his training rather than bump his head till he figures it out on his own. Attempting to formulate a curriculum that fits all these levels is I think, impractical.
2) The requirement of a jurneyman vary so widely from employer to employer, that forulateing a single sylabus that would work to best make a graduate imediatly employeable is even more impractible.
3) The HVACR field is so expancive, that attempting to porivide a facility to encompass it is finacially overwhelming. The reality is that most schools are someones vision of what the industry encompasses. That one persons vision is 99% of the time what his own experiances have been.
4) Along with the expanisiveness is the extreme rate of technological change the industry constantly experiances. Just envision for a moment the budget require to keep a program up to date with technological advances as they occur from all the thousands of manufatuerers. Even the quickest review tells you it's empossible to keep pace on an industry basis. You might be able to keep pace with one aspect (hydronic heating lets say) but not the entire HVAC feild. The facility and program is forced to be either partial in it's coverage, or outdated quickly.
5) Along with the financial considerations, there is the human aspect as well, in the form of the instructors. Although it may be a dream job, an instructor or even as many instructors as you can imagine having would need to spend nearly all there time keeping themselves current. Burn out isn't just a possiblity , it's inevitable.

Gary Fereday

Reading, Riteing, & Rithmetic

Or communications between people and machines. Without these three things, technical training advances are nearly hopeless. Communications between people are the basics of everything. And Mathematics (arithmetic) is how we communicate with machinery. TV is nothing more than math in motion.



Attitude is next. If a positive attitude is present, and the student has the basics of communication (as stated above), Technical training will be a snap. You can train attitude into a person but it takes a great deal of time and money. US Military does it ,Seals, Rangers, Special Forces, all acquier an attitude of special importance with a couiple of years training. This kind of 24/7 training is not avalible to the trades.

There needs to be an examination of the students attitude, just like his readin, ritein, rithemetic, to really understand if it is worth training him in the trades. And that is a money thing. His or the publics.

All training costs money, on-the-job, or formal. The student and the public has to plan to accept those costs. A doctor, trains for years for his expertise. Usually going into debt, and not participating in his own pleasure. The public pays for his education when they attend to his practice for their physical needs.

Lastly, or first, the student in the trades needs some business management skills. Enough to know when he should get trained business help in the future. In other words, the trades today are fueled with expert technical folks who are inept businessmen or expert businessmen who are inept technicians. (look at the many "one man" shops)
imho
bigugh

Dale

Mix

Being very involved with the pipeline gas operator qualification effort in the states for the past 8 years I am more concinced than ever that all good training is a mix of formal, OJT, and continuing trainging for ever. I see the internet training offerings getting better each year for code compliance and other updates, used in the States alot for people who need continuning education for licenses. I think the best rraining on new equipment is manufacturer training, alot could be internet given. And, the hands on stuff takes hands on time under a qualified individial to learn really learn it. How long depends on the person and there should be some flexibility.

Doug Wagoner

Training

I learned the trades (plb, htg, a/c) from my father and his brothers at an early age. I continued in high school with many related courses and then into Tech School (Mechanical Eng.) All licensed contractors in N.C. have to have six Continuing Education Units (CEU) yearly to renew their license. The CEU's began in 2002 and must be taken from a Licensing Board approved training center. I beleive it is a good way to ensure that a contractor is trying to stay abreast of the changes. He will have to do more than the minimum but at least it is a start in the right direction.

Darin Cook_2

GUESS WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no formal heating certification in the state of New York. The people who chose to educate themselves, take pride in their work, and actually choose this as a career, have to compete with Joe Woodchuck. These are the kind of people that have showed up in the trade because there is no place else to go or the only place that would not drug test them. Golly, even the big orange box drug tests the $8.00 hr experts (I mean employees). I highly feel that the great state of New York would totally benefit from a state wide licensing system such as the New England area has. Bringing all the players up to the same page of music would also bring the pricing to the same level.

Mark Hunt

Sure


easy for you to say. You probaly finished high school.
And what does drug testing have to do with why I do plumbing and heating? I never do drugs before work.
Bring prices up? You one of them flat raters? You think frank blau is god?

You don't fool me.

billy from NY

Darin Cook_2

Sorry Billy

I do not charge high prices because I want to save my customers money. Frank Blau should be nailed to a cross and worshipped for the great things he has done for industry. I don't want to talk big but ever since i got my GED, i be feelin mad proud.