Page 20 - Climate Control News Magazine June-July 2020

Tools for refrigeration
apprentices in the digital age
REFRIGERANT RECLAIM AUSTRALIA (RRA) AND TAFE HAVE LAUNCHED A SERIES OF NEW DIGITAL TRAINING RESOURCES FOR STUDENTS UNDERTAKING THE CERTIFICATE III AIR CONDITIONING AND REFRIGERATION COURSE.
on all systems can be challenging, especially with budget constraints and rapidly evolving technology.”
Farrelley said the Cert III course is essential for the industry as it provides apprentices with the skills to become qualified air-conditioning and refrigeration mechanics.
“The training video series is a set of three short videos, each explaining a different aspect of the recovery process,” she said.
“The first video explains the environmental damage refrigerants can cause if emitted to at- mosphere, and what global actions have been, and are, being taken to reduce the impacts.
“The second video describes how refrigerant in systems at end-of-life can be a valuable re- source, and how RRA provides a rebate for re- turned unwanted or contaminated refrigerant.
“The final video wraps up the process, describ- ing how recovered refrigerant is safely disposed of using the argon plasma-arc process.”
The video series are available for download from the RRA website. www.refrigerantreclaim. com.au/educational-tools/
LAUNCHED LAST MONTH, the pro- ject has been in development for the past 18 months.
RRA CEO, Kylie Farelley, said the re- sources include a series of training vid- eos and an augmented reality (AR) Refrigerant
Recovery training app.
She said the resources have been specially de-
veloped by RRA and TAFE to provide an innova- tive and hands-on way to for apprentices to un- derstand the refrigerant recovery processes for different types of equipment.
“In this new era of minimal face-to-face con- tact it would be easy to claim that the RRA were so visionary we were planning for a pandemic-
like situation where remote learning was the norm,” Farrelley said.
“But the truth of the matter is for the past 18 months RRA were preparing to bring TAFE’s re- frigeration apprenticeship into the digital age, modernising the way that air-conditioning and refrigeration students learn about refrigerant re- covery long before the pandemic hit.
“The processes for recovering refrigerant, pressure testing, evacuating and re-charging systems are critical for both upholding industry best practice and reducing the emission of ozone depleting and high GWP refrigerant gases.
“With each type of system requiring a differ- ent recovery process, training new apprentices
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