A capacity crowd of over 300 HVAC educators and trainers filled a Las Vegas convention center March 26-27 to attend the First Annual HVAC Excellence Educators and Trainers Conference. The two-day event featured capacity training sessions both days.

This inaugural conference is unique as it’s the first conference exclusively for the HVAC industry. Educators and trainers involved in training the current and future workforce of the industry attended from all across North America.

Over 250 different schools were represented, along with people from Goodman Manufacturing, Amana Manufacturing, Johnson Controls, Fieldpiece, Bacharach, Hampden Engineering, the U.S. Air Force, Ferguson Enterprises, East Coast Metal Distributors, Legend Valve, the Mechanical Service Contractors Association, Watts Radiant, the United Association, Noland Company, Air Cold Supply, Ferris State University, and many others.

The focus of the conference is professional development for the educator and trainer.  Some of the classes offered to the trainers included: Training Techniques that Work, R-410A, Combustion Analysis, Weatherization, new Heat Pump Technologies, Maximizing AC Efficiency, EPA Workshop, Carbon Monoxide, Hydronics, Green Awareness, Load Calculations, New Perkins Requirements, and 13 SEER and Beyond.

During the conference, a common theme came up from many of the presenters.  In the next decade roughly 40% of the HVAC industry will retire. In addition, the industry is getting more technical. Also, it is estimated that the industry fails to fill 22,000 new jobs each year. However, a few organizations offered some great help to the industry. Steve Allen the director of education and recruitment for the United Association announced a new program in which if a student attends an HVAC Excellence accredited HVACR program, they are eligible to transfer their credits from the school into the United Associations apprenticeship program. This is a win-win situation for the students and the schools.  Students now can transfer credits to any UA local and be hired by the 21,000 affiliated employer partners of the UA.

For more information, visit www.hvacexcellence.org.