By Walter Arnett

Starting our 28th Year! Happy Birthday, HVAC Insider, Florida Edition!

This month, August, begins the 28th year of bringing you the news of the HVAC/R industry, not only in Florida, but nationwide as well. Our plans are to continue doing the job of bringing you this news of our profession and helping the industry grow. We thank all of you supporters for making our efforts in this cause a success. Without you we could not have done the job.

I have read several articles recently on the growth of the need, now and in the future, for qualified mechanics in the HVAC/R field. This has been a serious concern for a great while and is getting worse. The associations everywhere are doing their best to keep capable people interested in learning the trade. The dealers and distributors are working with apprentice programs by sending promising young prospects to classes to learn the right way. Some of these dealers and distributors are even doing the teaching in the classes, as well as on the job training. There are some high schools around Florida that have shops that they can teach a variety of trades to those students that are not inclined in going to college. If you have a school in your area that does have shop training, check with them to see if they could use your knowledge and help in some way. If there is no HVAC/R program available, maybe you can interest them in starting one.

In any case, keep working with new recruits to make sure they get the correct training that will make them the qualified mechanic that is needed in the HVAC/R industry now and in the future. We’ll talk again next month.