A Free Skills Program Is Training Veterans and Transitioning Soldiers for HVAC Careers
The HVAC industry itself, like many skilled trades, is experiencing a huge labor shortage to the tune of 122,000 skilled technicians. That shortage creates an employment opportunity for transitioning service members, veterans and for employers, a sentiment echoed by Bill Timberlake and Anthony Maynor, partners at Raleigh, North Carolina's RightTek HVAC Training.
"It comes with a starting salary of around $45,000, without a college degree," Timberlake tells Military.com. "Then you realize within two years, most technicians with overtime and bonuses can earn $80-90,000. That's good work for good money."
Timberlake has been in the HVAC sector for nearly 30 years. He got his start after enlisting in the Navy. He attended the University of Maryland to study mechanical engineering before returning to the Navy as an officer in the Corps of Engineers. He even taught at the U.S. Naval Academy before retiring in 2004.
Maynor didn't serve in the military. He has worked in HVAC for most of his adult life, running his own HVAC business for more than two decades and becoming a well-known figure in Raleigh. The pair both trained students at a local college before they got together in 2018 and founded the RightTek Training school.
RightTek Training is unique in that it distills the yearlong training program from the local college into a two month course. In 2021 Maynor and Timberlake saw an opportunity to get the school onto nearby Fort Bragg, which wanted an HVAC training program as part of the Army's Career Skills Program.
Trane now provides equipment to the students as well as after-hours access to Trane's internal Learning Management Systems training programs and online learning modules.
"Trane is interested in doing the right thing by our veterans," says Dottie Goebel, a Dealer Experience Manager at Trane Residential. "Nothing made a better fit for our dealers who are desperately seeking technicians and installers. The industry shortage for technicians and installers is growing every year as people are retiring and no group is more deserving than our veterans."
Trane also ensures that there are no out-of-pocket costs for soldiers looking to learn HVAC through the Trade Warriors program. The cost of attendance is covered by HVAC dealers who hire the program's graduates, which has a nearly 100% job placement rate.
Potential students do not need mechanical engineering or previous HVAC experience to apply.
By the 2nd or 3rd week of the program, soldiers will be interviewing for jobs, contingent on completion of the program and separation from the military. Soldiers then become Trane Certified Technicians after passing the EPA (EPA608) and NATE Ready-to-Work exams at the end of the program.
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1moSo day one trainees figured out how to fix something your partners couldn't be bothered to address in months that created unbearable working conditions and that's the compelling story?