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While I was out fishing yesterday for largemouth ankle deep in mud off the bank in a lake by my house, the admissions rep from Dunwoody called and I will be starting there this fall in their HVAC service program. Hopefully the job prospects are better when I am done with the program.

Thanks for the replies guys.

Jesse

keep in mind you get what you pay for....dunwoody is a good school. they really do teach the basics but very thoroughly. all of the teachers are good...you learn a lot about electric motors and get to wire some crazy frankenstein circuits with what they have in their labs, the combination of motors and controls.
If you want to get in to the local pipefitters 539 go to the hvac service program...not the hvac install program. they'll only accept you with the service program. I loved going to that school...good times.
PS the union prefers people who go to d. wood because thats where the apprentice program is.

Originally Posted by jwaldrop

Anybody else have experience or knowledge of Dunwoody's HVAC program? It seems like one of the best in the Twin-Cities area.

Also, anybody with experience. I will be going through the systems service program. I was wondering what the pay rate is for UA apprentice HVAC service program. I found that information for SMWIA local 10 but not for UA local 539?

Thanks

Jesse

If somebody else is paying, there's nothing wrong with Dunwoody, but if you are paying I would check into a different school. I learned HVAC/R 2 blocks north of there at MCTC. I thought their program was very good. I also know people who went to Hennepin Tech who were happy. Everyone I know that went to Dunwoody feels like they got ripped off since their program is about 4 times more expensive than other schools. Dunwoody used to be a very well respected private "institute" that specialized in only a few offerings like automotive, welding, machining, etc. Now they replaced the "institute" part of their name with "college" and they are branching out into many more areas such as computers and interior design, etc. and I think their reputation as a premier tech school has been sliding quite a bit in the last few years.

As far as the 539 Pipefitters, they have a 5 year apprenticeship program before you hit journeyman scale. They recently changed their program where all service techs now start as 2nd year apprentices as long as they completed tech school. Construction Fitters still start out at year number 1.

Here is the most recent pay scale info I have (from May 1st 2008)...

1st year= 16.60
2nd year= 21.09
3rd year= 24.46
4th year= 28.39
5th year= 31.50
Journeyman= 34.47

These are the base rates not including extra perks like pension, healthcare, and a small hourly amount that you are supposed to keep as your vacation money. All of the fringe benefits are supposed to add up to a Journeyman "total package" of 56.14. Also, this is slightly outdated, and rates have gone up since 2008. That being said, the economy sucks right now and the union isn't taking many (if any) new recruits right now, but hopefully things will be better by the time you are done with school. Good luck!

Originally Posted by jwaldrop

Anybody else have experience or knowledge of Dunwoody's HVAC program? It seems like one of the best in the Twin-Cities area.
Also, anybody with experience. I will be going through the systems service program. I was wondering what the pay rate is for UA apprentice HVAC service program. I found that information for SMWIA local 10 but not for UA local 539?
Thanks
Jesse

I know NormChris thinks highly of it......

http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=101839
http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=113569

From what I've heard, great program. I went to Northeast Metro. Not that good. Only thing I liked was the at your own pace design so I wasn't held back by the losers in that school.

New here. Starting Dunwoody(Minneapolis) HVAC/R program in Winter

Anybody else have experience or knowledge of Dunwoody's HVAC program? It seems like one of the best in the Twin-Cities area.

Also, anybody with experience. I will be going through the systems service program. I was wondering what the pay rate is for UA apprentice HVAC service program. I found that information for SMWIA local 10 but not for UA local 539?

Thanks

Jesse