Last week on our TradeMasters Workshop weekly podcast, I had the pleasure of talking with Mr. Tom Cates of the HRAI – the Heating Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Institute of Canada. As a lead faculty member he was very informative and forthcoming with regards to his opinion on the future of our industry.
Some of the most noteworthy messages he shared with us were:
1. In perpetuity, there will be a tremendous amount of work for both 313A refrigeration technicians and, 313D air conditioning technicians – Tom estimates the next thirty years at least. What will drive this demand is the changing energy landscape. For Canadians to meet our looming carbon reduction and energy efficiency targets, newly built homes and buildings will increasingly move to electric heat pump technology for heating, and away from gas fired appliances. In some cases, new neighborhoods will be constructed with centrally located ground source or water source loops that each home can tie into. This means a lot of install, service and maintenance work for refrigerant based equipment.
2. Employers are increasingly looking for ‘differentiators’ in their hiring processes. Tom recommends that taking any of their courses, for example Residential Ventilation, Heat loss/heat gain,
Residential Systems Air design – clearly demonstrate to employers a deeper passion, commitment and understanding of the science behind what the individual technician is doing on the job.
3. More of the HRAI’s courses are moving to Remote/Online Delivery. Most notably this arose from the necessity of Covid however, Tom points out that for the first time they are now also able to deliver their quality skills training and certifications to people whom used to be considered inaccessible or too remote. Check out their ODP/ODS certification course which you can now complete from home: https://www.hrai.ca/odp-ods.
To hear the complete Podcast please visit https://www.tmws.ca/podcasts and listen to season 2 episode 2. Thank you Tom!!
When you are ready to write your 313A or 313D licensing exam, please visit us at https://www.tmws.ca/
Our exam preparation courses are also completely online, accessible anywhere in Canada and, the very best in industry both from a quality and cost point of view.
See you in class,
TradeMaster Chris.
If you are well trained and have skills to deal with the complexity of the HVAC issues then this career is best for you. By opting this career as an HVAC Contractor, you can earn a lot more than you imagine.