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You could have the very best instructors on Earth, but if you dont follow their instructions ... what has been gained?

The best way to get the needed knowledge of this industry is to work for an employer during the day and have them set you up working under a Mentor.
Then at night you go to class. And the employer has an active role in your education. The emplyer, the Mentor and the instructors all work together to tailor your field time with your class time.

Let's say your working in C-Stores, you dont need knowledge of thousand horse chillers now do you? No.

And when your in the field servicing commercial A/C equipment, you dont need to be handling residential furnaces do you? No you dont.

On the other hand, if your employer was paying for your schooling, as well as your daily wages and the salary of your Mentor, and his work was primarily residential A/C, he wouldnt want you studying coplematics or headmaster controls now would he? No .... he would not.


Now this may not be agreeable to everyon ein our trade, but so what.
This is my idea and whether or not its shared by everyone else is not an issue to me.
This is somethig that will work and work very very well.

Since our industry has let go of raising up young men and women to take the place of all the old farts who are retiring and dying off ... we have to do soemthing differant!
And this is the best of the three options now available.

What has been done in the past is these three methods. And to some varying degree they each have some limited value.

A) Union apprenticeship.

B) OJT

C) go to school, find a job, develope your skills over many years of prying knowledge out of the heads of ol timers. Apply your knowledge to get a better job. Continue to learn from ol timers. Etc., etc.

And ... there is my way.


If I'm going to work on chillers, I dont want knowledge of residential furnaces and condensing units. I dont want to study nor participate in runing flex or spiral or ductboard.
I want to study chillers! Period!

The same goes for market work or commercial refrigeration & ice making.

I dont need to know the history of John Carrier. I need to know the history of .... how this is performed and why.

Then once I'm fully entrenched in the trade, I will pick up this history and that tid bit of knowledge over there.


Service men and women in this industry are like the Special Forces of the military. We are the Navy Seals. We are the Rangers.

We enter a job and have to hit the ground running!

But one of the major problems in our service industry today is our older techs never developed the skills to Mentor the younger techs!
And if I was a mean spirited individual, I would take special pleasure in doling out discipline to those who never share their knowledge with the new guy. Those who never lend a helping hand would be given lessons they would never ever forget.

This is compounded by service managers who believe it is alright for those senior techs to withhold trade skills/ knowledge from the aprentices.
And the employers themselves ... they follow the leading of their managers.

So how does a new guy get his break?
Either this industry adopts my idea for training or we accept the fact that we who are senior techs right now, will never have opportunity to retire because we are not raising up people qualified to take over our positions!
And well will be working in the fild for the next umpteen years, never being able to enjoy time off or fishing at a quiet pace.

Anyone have any opinions on Vatterott technical college and whether it is a good school? Do companies generally seek Vatterott students like they say?