Page 21 - Climate Control News August 2021

NextGen 2021
Reflections from a previous generation
REFRIGERATION AND AIR Conditioning Contractors Association (R ACCA) president, Kevin O’Shea, reflects on a 50 year career as a technician.
NextGen has brought back memories of my early days of working in the refrigeration and air conditioning industry; back then the majority of tradesmen were fitters & turners.
“I WOULD RECOMMEND RAC OVER ALL OTHER TRADES.”
I was part of the cohort of apprentices that ac- tually studied refrigeration and air conditioning at the college. Before me, most apprentices in our trade would complete an engineering appren- ticeship and all the refrigeration knowledge and skills would be learnt on the job – I must add that this is the United Kingdom that I am referring to.
My off-the-job study was a block release course where I had to live away from home to complete my city and guilds qualification.
Why would I recommend a career in refrigera- tion and air conditioning to someone looking for guidance in their career choice? I might be bi-
ased but refrigeration and air conditioning is a great trade and I would recommend it over all other trades.
Some of the questions you might ask first are: Do you like working with your hands? Does a challenge appeal to you? Can you solve simple puzzles? Do you have an inquisitive mind? Are you prepared to never stop learning?
A positive reply to these questions, is a good start. As an industry we have a problem at- tracting the right calibre of entrants to our in- dustry. I have heard of apprentices repeatedly failing their capstone test and the teacher hav- ing to give them extra coaching to get them through. This is a major problem for our indus- try. Furthermore, lack of visibility is not mak- ing our industry appealing to the brighter kids, it just widens the gap for us trying to compete for talent with universities.
It is not all doom and gloom - NextGen, along with World Skills - are a testament to that. Both programs highlight upcoming ambassadors of our industry to the broader public and shows that our industry recognises its outstanding young participants.
Recently RACCA has been working with Dai- kin and Kirby to do our bit in promoting our in- dustry to schools and have done so through the NSW Government’s Educational Pathways Pi- lot Program.
The program invites years 9, 10 and 11 stu- dents to apply classroom mathematical con-
RACCA president, Kevin O’Shea Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association (RACCA)
cepts learnt during their Mathematics in Trades study unit to HVAC&R scenarios. Activities in- clude using equations to measure the mass flow of a refrigeration unit and calculate heating effi- ciency, alongside hands-on activities such as copper pipe bending.
Looking back over the past 50+ years, we still have the same issues with our industry that we had back then – a serious skills shortage and not being able to attract enough apprentices that will excel in our trade.
It is for this reason we need to encourage our apprentices. Congratulations to this year’s Top 20 for a job well done.
CLIMATE CONTROL NEWS AUGUST 2021
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