Hillyard Technical Center in Saint Joseph, Missouri has been granted accreditation of their Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (HVACR) program, by HVAC Excellence.

In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt is President of the United States, a first-class stamp was 3 cents, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 135, and Americans gathered around the radio to hear Rudy Vallee, Tommy Dorsey, and Perry Como. In addition, Hillyard Technical Center opened through generous donations by Newton Scott Hillyard.

While the world has changed a great deal in the last seventy-six years, the dream of Newton Scott Hillyard lives on. Having built a reputation as a leader in education, the faculty and staff at Hillyard Technical Center wanted to validate that their HVACR program was meeting the national standards, and their high expectations. To accomplish this, they voluntarily decided to pursue programmatic accreditation of their HVACR program.

Programmatic accreditation is an independent third-party review of an educational program. The process validates that established standards of excellence for HVACR educational programs are met. These standards are designed to ensure that our future workforce receives the quality of training required to provide the skills necessary for success in the HVACR industry.

In order to pursue accreditation, the staff at the school had to submit a self-study filled with narratives and examples of how they complied with each of the required standards. The self-study, once completed, was sent to HVAC Excellence, allowing their accreditation review board to thoroughly assess for compliance against each standard.  HVAC Excellence, having approved the self-study, sent a team to conduct an intense, onsite review of the program. The onsite team consists of two members, one who has served as an HVACR instructor, the other as a school administrator. These onsite team members are seasoned professionals that possess the knowledge, training, and experience to successfully evaluate every aspect of an HVACR program.

Upon a thorough review of all the documentation presented by the school and the onsite accreditation team, the HVAC Excellence accreditation review board decided to grant accreditation of the program.

Some of the many benefits of obtaining HVAC Excellence programmatic accreditation include:

• Provide prospective students with quality assurance of the program
• Give employers assurance that graduates have access to a quality education
• Aid in establishing articulation agreements
• Serve as an eligibility determinant for funding
• Can lead to increased enrollment
• May enhance student placement and employer satisfaction
• Encourages faculty collaboration
• Can assist students in the acceptability of transfer credits
• Establish goals for self-improvement
• May lead to advanced placement opportunities

Now that the program has earned national accreditation, it is listed in a public directory of accredited HVACR programs. Learn more about the accredited HVACR program at HIllyard Technical Center by visiting them at https://www.sjsd.k12.mo.us/hillyard.