New Career Map Provides Employment Opportunities in HVAC/R Industry
Press Release Summary:
IREC develops Careers in Climate Control Technology Map that provides interactive tool to show employment opportunities in HVAC/R (heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration) industry. This map identifies residential, commercial, sales and marketing, automated controls, and design and engineering sectors. The tool can be used by educators, career advisors, students, military veterans, employers, policy makers and workforce professionals for seeing high-quality jobs in the industry.
Original Press Release:
A Climate Headline that Points to Growing Career Opportunities
A new career map, Careers in Climate Control Technology, provides a first-of-its-kind interactive, visual tool to showcase the employment opportunities that exist in the swiftly growing HVAC/R industry – Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration.
The challenge is that HVAC/R training programs at community colleges and other institutions struggle to get students interested in their programs. This new career map offers a powerful tool that can be used by educators, career advisors, students, military veterans, employers, policy makers, workforce professionals and others to see the wide variety of high-quality jobs that exist in the industry. It also illustrates how advancement is possible after just a few years of experience.
The map identifies five sectors within the industry – residential, commercial, sales and marketing, automated controls, and design and engineering. It highlights 40 jobs and more than 150 advancements between those jobs and across sectors.
Created by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) in conjunction with Santa Rosa Junior College, the jobs and job details are focused on the California market, but are applicable across the U.S.
“The Careers in Climate Control Technology map explores an industry exploding with job opportunities in heating, air conditioning and refrigeration technologies, describing diverse occupations across the industry, the multitude of advancement routes (over 150) between jobs and sectors, and identifying the sorts of credentials necessary to do these jobs well,” explains Joe Sarubbi, project coordinator for IREC.
"I recently had a chance to see the Careers in Climate Control Technology Map presented at the California Community College Association for Occupational Education (CCCAOE) Conference," said Tina Dodson, director of workforce programs at Santa Rosa Junior College. "The excitement in the room was palpable. Educators and career counselors are in desperate need of tools like this career map – tools that show the real job opportunities that exist in trade industries like the HVAC/R industry."
“The map includes a section on ‘green’ or clean energy jobs within the industry,” adds Sarubbi, “jobs with a mission to design, build and operate high-quality, healthier and more energy-efficient homes and commercial or industrial buildings.”
Details provide a brief description of each job, with salary range, information on education and training, as well as skills and requirements necessary to do the job well. The information was assembled with the participation of five subject matter experts across the HVAC/R industry.
In addition to the map itself, other information on the industry and its sectors is provided, along with training information and resources specifically for veterans, and a frequently asked questions section. To complement the map, a short video guides viewers through the map's features.
“Community colleges provide many of the trade and technical training options for the clean energy workforce, and are essential to building a pipeline for workers trained for jobs that require skills and knowledge to work with or around clean energy technologies,” said IREC President/CEO Larry Sherwood. “This tool for the HVAC/R industry is built off the model for asolar career map IREC created in 2015. We see these as a valuable contribution to the growing clean energy economy and expect to engage in similar projects in the future.”
Employment in the HVAC/R industry is growing faster than the average for all occupations – on track for projected growth of 15 percent from 2016 to 2026. The diversity of job opportunities and the advancement of building automation systems makes this an attractive and rewarding career.
Funding for the Careers in Climate Control Technology map was made possible by the Proposition 39 Clean Energy Workforce Program Grant, a statewide California initiative that transferred $550 million annually to the Clean Energy Job Creation Fund from 2013 – 2018. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office invested approximately $6 million from the fund each year in clean energy workforce training programs across the state’s 114 community colleges.
As the Proposition 39 fiscal agent, Santa Rosa Junior College commissioned IREC to develop the Careers in Climate Control Technology Map.
About IREC
An independent national not-for-profit organization shaping a clean energy future since 1982, IREC increases access to sustainable energy and energy efficiency through fact-based policy leadership, quality workforce development and consumer empowerment. Through engagement in state regulatory proceedings, technical support to decision makers, advocates and industry, IREC drives scalable, foundational policy solutions and best practices integral to achieving 100 percent clean energy goals, including a workforce trained to support a clean energy economy. www.irecusa.org.
Contact: Ruth Fein
ruthfein@irecusa.org
518.858.7329
