Hey guys in this video i'm going to talk about the problem with hvac trade schools based on my experience, but before we get to that, if you love kittens christmas or chubby guys that do heating and air videos, please click that subscribe button, hey guys. I want to do this, video on trade schools and specifically, schools that teach heating and air, and this could be just a local, vocational school or even a community college. I have dealt with them in different forms: i've hired employees that have gone to these schools. I've actually sent employees to some of those schools and of course, years ago i went to a trade school.

I think there are three big things that are a big problem with some of these schools. I'm hoping that you know if somebody sees this video and you are in charge at a trade school or you have some sort of pull that. Maybe some of these things can be remedied because, in my opinion, they are humongous problems and they need to be addressed. So the first thing i want to go over is the curriculums.

I have hired people that have come from trade schools and some of these guys, you know they go to a community college or a trade school and sometimes they'll, even take like a two-year program before they even get their first job or maybe they've gotten their first Job and they're doing these classes at night either way they go in there with the anticipation of learning how to do the trade getting a good head start and they're going to be leaps and bounds. You know above someone that's just getting into the trade for day. One knowing nothing and that all sounds good, but the problem is in a lot of cases, is the curriculum i'll give you a good example. I hired a guy a few years ago.

He was in a two-year program and he was in year two. So he had been taking this. You know class uh, you know three times a week or however many times a week. He was going and he was in year two and this particular guy.

He was not interested in a full-time position, so i just hired him to help us a little bit here and there he again he was in year two he had been doing it a while, and i expected you know, because of that he would at least know How to do certain things, certain simple things, things that you know if i were to teach someone how to do what i do, which i have you know if we hire someone and they've, never done heating and air, and i'm going to teach them how to do What we do there are certain things that i want to get out of the way before i can do anything else right, so i would say day one week one, if nothing else, i want them to know how to wire a thermostat. I want them to know what each color is, what it does, how to wire it properly and depending on what type of heating and air system it is, what wires you use and how you program, the thermostat and so on, and once they learn that so, if They learn that you know this color does this, and this color does that now i've got something i can build on. You know if they know that the orange wire is the reversing valve and then in the future i teach them. How to you know, work on the reversing valve or diagnose a failed, reversing valve whatever on a heat pump system.

They they, they know like they're they're like look. This is the orange wire coming from the thermostat that that controls this. The point is this guy. He was in year two and he didn't even know how to wire a thermostat, and i i even told him i'm like man.

They are stealing your money because that's something you should have learned like in the first class, if not the first class in the first few classes - and i asked someone like what are you learning in there and he said well, you know we've learned how to braze. We've held torches in our hands and you know how to do that: sort of stuff, purge nitrogen, that sort of stuff pressurize systems and pool vacuums. All these things - and i'm like okay - and that brings me to my second point, with the curriculum - and that is in my opinion, if, especially if someone that is in charge of the curriculum at a trade school, maybe you're a teacher - and you see this - maybe possibly In my opinion, i think that somebody that is learning how to do what we do is at least to do what we do here at griffin, air. You know we do mostly residential and we have probably 10 10 to 20 percent of our customers, our commercial customers.

They should be learning way more way more about electrical and how wires work and what this does and what that does. I can teach someone a whole lot faster, how to braise a pipe properly than teach them electrical theory teach them what a low voltage electrical solenoid does on a contactor. You know there's so much to that, and i think that these guys, you know, they're taking all these classes at a vocational school and they're being crippled. In my opinion, in some cases, they're spending all this money and i've heard of programs and i've heard that the federal government is going to start making more of this stuff more affordable, if not free, which is fine, but even if the class is free.

These guys are at least investing their time right, and so they put all this time into it and they don't even understand very basic electrical schematic wiring that they do need to know by the way before they even start working on these heating and air systems. In my opinion, they should know you know i can teach a guy how to find a leak, a refrigerant leak way faster than i can teach him how the schematics and and how things work in that cabinet. There might be people that disagree with that, but you know i i'm sure, there's you can make arguments for either way on safety and things like that. But from a professional standpoint, if someone were to learn the electrical side of things and how to read a schematic and how you know how low voltage and high voltage how all that stuff works.

If they were to learn all that by the time they get closer to working in the field or if they're, already working in the field, those other things can be taught fairly quickly in comparison problem number two with trade schools. This happened to me - and this happened to several other people that i have talked to, and that is a lot of trade schools will lie, they will lie they. They lied to me about the credentials and the weight that their classes carry in the workplace and so i'll give you a good example. When i went to school the particular school i went to - and this will kind of play into what i just talked about with the electrical side of things when i first originally ever started going to tech school, i was in high school, the vocational school that i Went to didn't have heating and air classes, so i went there to be an electrician, and so, when i took those classes, they told us all these things about how the credit hours and the classes and all these things were.

They were state certified and you would be, you would be a journeyman electrician after you take these classes and looking back i mean now that i know what i know you know it was pretty ignorant of me to think that these things were the case, but i Had no idea, i was just a 16 year old young man trying to figure out what i was going to do with my life right, and so i was being told yeah you take these classes and you're going to be a journeyman electrician. When you finish well, they don't take into effect. You know, yeah you've got to have all these classes, but in the state of virginia you have to have a certain amount of hours with classes. You have to have a certain amount of hours with working in the field and then even after all, that's said and done and there's different levels to that.

If you have more schooling and less work space or more workspace and less schooling, whatever, but no matter how you get there, you still have to sit and take a test. And again, maybe that was just my ignorance, but i'm telling you they didn't tell us that in the school and that's fine to a degree, maybe they were just misinformed themselves, but i just think that it's just kind of you know you got these very easily. Influenced young adults and sometimes still kids, trying to figure out what they're going to do and what classes to take and they're being lied to. I remember when i first ever looked at going to the school.

My high school called an assembly, and so we all went to the auditorium and we're sitting there, and somebody got up there and started talking about how there's all this money that could be made in the computers and the masonry fields. Masonry like where you lay block. That's a whole nother story, but the short version is, i later found out that the reason they were pushing those two classes. It wasn't because there were all these opportunities which maybe there was, but the reason they were pushing them wasn't because there were all these opportunities in the workplace or in the country and all this stuff.

The reason they were pushing those two classes was because the attendance was low and they needed to fill up those classes to make them viable to be able to pay the teachers salaries. So again, i just think that's a little deceiving so we'll get off of that. I would just say: do your homework? Do your due diligence? I've got an employee right now, he's a you know. 19 year old young man he's taken some classes down at one of the community colleges, and we talked about the same exact thing: i'm helping him navigate through some of that, or at least i hope i am he's already taken - some classes that he he's come back And told me yeah: this is you know, i know what we're doing, because i've worked here for a year almost - and this is this - was pretty useless for me to have taken this class and then the final.

The third thing that i think is a problem with a lot of these trade schools, and that is a lot of them. Now, i'm not saying they're all this way. In fact, the school that i went to was not this way, but the schools in the area that i'm in right now that griffin air is in they will not connect you with the students. So you've got all these students taking these classes, they're taking nursing and they're, taking electrical and they're taking heating and air and they're, taking whatever it is, they're taking, and they have no programs for those students to be able to be connected with good heating and air Companies or good electrical companies or whatever, whatever the trade is, and i think that's not only is it a mistake but they're not doing their students justice, because i've literally called our local trade, school and they'll, usually just connect me with the teacher and that particular teacher.

They had a couple years ago. I have not spoken to the one they just hired this year, but the one that i spoke to a couple years ago. He was not very pleasant man and he had no desire to connect me with any of the students. It was just going to be one more thing he had to do so.

In my opinion, it would not be that hard with my experience of websites, which is very little to have some sort of place where they could post or even shoot. Just even a facebook group that, if you're in this school that companies could advertise to the students or connect with them in some way, maybe have internships with some trades with eating and air. We don't have a lot of internships, but it would be nice to be able to connect with some of those students and say: hey you're, a student you're already taking this pretty seriously. Why don't you check us out? Here's what we're offering whatever the point is: the school, i think, should do their best to connect the students and employers, the students and what the students are going to do in the future and connect them with that in some way, shape or form.

I know there are schools out there that do that very well, but i can tell you the two in our area, the community college and the class that the high school students go to. They don't do it at all. I mean it's, it's it's pretty weak. Pretty sad, in my opinion, so maybe one of them will see this and change their ways uh, but i should be able to call the school and at least be connected with someone be connected to a student or be sent to a facebook page whatever the case Is it's pretty sad that i can't even do that all that said, i know most of my videos are directed towards homeowners, but i've felt pretty strongly about this.

If you're, looking at the heating and air industry as a career and you're looking at schools around, there's not a lot, if you're a student that you could really do about this, i'm not saying you'd be able to change the school's ways overnight or anything like that. But i think that if i would have known about these things starting out, maybe i would have been able to filter things through a different lens and know if something was off all that said thanks for watching hit that subscribe button, we'll see you next time you.