Don’t just get a job – GET A GREAT CAREER! - Oregon Air Conditioning Contractors Association

Don’t Just Get A Job – GET A CAREER

Including the most conservative estimations place the present lack of HVACR technicians at 20,000, and also this quantity states absolutely nothing of the lack of qualified HVACR technicians. This enormous shortage, that has seriously affected many contractors and companies for the last few years, is simply forecasted to get even worse down the road.The main reason for this shortage of technical staff is the fact that vibrant, dedicated, young adults have been extremely conditioned to consider the trades as a lesser calling compared to the more popular career paths, for example: computer-programming, application design and style, investment banking, and so on.

HVAC Controls Technician
Average Salary: $51,000 per year

Without individuals knowledgeable within the technology of heating, air-conditioning and cooling systems, we would not have the ability to control the temperature, humidity, and the total air quality in residential, commercial, industrial, and other buildings requirements. Many Heating and cooling professionals will specialize in either installment or repair and maintenance, but must initially train to perform both equally.

Article from the Daily Journal of Commerce
To address the labor shortage afflicting the construction sector, industry groups have so far focused on efforts to entice kids. But a new summer program is taking a different approach, by going after kids’ teachers and mentors.

“I knew about apprenticeships,” said Myra Adams, a counselor at Gervais High School. “But I didn’t really know what

they were.” This year, the state government, through the Willamette Promise education service district in Salem, organized a summer teacher externship for the building industry. Associated General Contractors’ Construction Workforce Coalition, which is made up of industry stakeholders, including Associated Builders and Contractors funded the effort.

“Someone had the good idea of, instead of doing a summer program for kids, where we maybe affect 10 kids – why
don’t we have a summer program for teachers and show them the construction industry? They can go back and tell,
oh, 150 students each about the construction industry,” said Steve Malany, president of P&C Construction.
Teachers earned graduate school credit, and a $1,000 stipend.

Adams said that by learning about construction herself, her students will be the real beneficiaries.
“Because when I say ‘construction’ they all think about framing, because that’s all they know,” she said. “They don’t
really get that there are suppliers and there are HVAC technicians and everything else that goes into building
something.”

Willamette Promise’s Cherie Clark was encouraged when she heard from construction executives that they would be
willing to pay teachers to show them the ropes. “You know, teachers are looking for money in the summer,” she said. “It sounded like a win-win.” The program, a two-week immersion in the trades, wrapped recently. Participants toured job sites, built their own projects, learned about safety and apprenticeships, rode along on service calls and met company presidents.

Connections were the program’s best benefit, Central High School teacher Kendra George said. “I took home so many business cards, it looks like a deck of playing cards,” she said. Adams learned about plumbing and HVAC installation on ride-alongs with Mr. Rooter and Watts Heating and Cooling.

Steve Pozo, right, sales manager at Lakeside Lumber, leads a group of high school teachers on a tour of the siding supplier?s Tualatin warehouse. The tour was part of a two-week summer externship designed to familiarize the educators with job opportunities in the building industry. (Sam Tenney/DJC)
Steve Pozo, right, sales manager at Lakeside Lumber, leads a group of high school teachers on a tour of the siding supplier?s Tualatin warehouse. The tour was part of a two-week summer externship designed to familiarize the educators with job opportunities in the building industry. (Sam Tenney/DJC)

She learned that some jobs that pay $40,000 a year require only six weeks of training.

Fifty-five percent of the student body at Gervais High School is Latino, and 35 percent is Russian. Many of Adams’ advisees tell her their only goal after high school is to not end up picking fruit in the fields like their parents.

“I did the traditional route myself – I went to school, got my master’s degree,” she said. “I’m able to talk about the way that I did things, but what I didn’t know about is apprenticeship-type programs. Sometimes it’s hard for me to talk about that with students.”

The 10 teachers toured NECA-IBEW Local 48, the Northwest College of Construction and the Oregon Institute of Technology. They visited the Roosevelt High School modernization project, which is headed by Lease Crutcher Lewis, and the headquarters and jobsites of Andersen Construction, Lease Crutcher Lewis, P&C Construction and Baldwin General Contracting. They also learned about supplier relations with a visit to Lakeside Lumber.