I spent most of my life working in various fields of construction, framing, plumbing, roofing, siding, sales, ect. Then the economy took a tank and I was out of work. Shortly after I married my wife I found my first maintenance job. One of the perks of the job was we were already leaving at the community and, once I could get on the on-call schedule, they would cover my rent.
In order to get on the on-call schedule I was told I needed to get what the property called a HVAC certification. They told me that once I went through the class and took the test I would be ready to repair the split air conditioning systems we had on our property.
Once I started studying for the "HVAC certification" I realized it wasn't going to give me all the information I needed. This "HVAC certification" was going to get me my EPA 608 certification. That certification basically makes sure you know how to properly capture and recharge the refrigerant in the system. It didn't go over any trouble shooting procedures, repair, or detailed operation of an AC system. Luckily I had taken a HVAC course in college and had already learned most of that information.
In the years since I have heard many maintenance technicians, managers, and regional manager were under the same impression as I was about the EPA 608 certification. They figure once the course was passed an employee would be prepared to work on the systems, which is far from the truth. My college course was a full semester preparing me to work on the systems; no one or two day course is going to properly teach you to repair an AC system. You will need months of hands on training or a long course in order to properly fix these systems.
I have heard this about other training courses too. Most of the time we are under the impression that once we walk out of a certain training course we will be all set; have learned all the knowledge we need. More often that not that is far from the truth. Most courses are designed for students who have a certain degree of knowledge coming into the course. That maybe basic, mid-level, or advanced but the course will not cover all levels of knowledge.
Because of this I have started calling the hosting agency of the training before signing up for the class. This could be your local apartment association, a supplier, or a governing agency. I ask them to give me a run down on exactly what the course teaches and if they have an outline of topics to be covered. If I am still unsure of how much actual, useful knowledge will be passed around I might even ask to talk to the speaker. I then take that information to the person I would like to see take the class. I try to get a good feel for how much of the knowledge they understand and if the class is going to be worth them taking.
Training is expensive, most classes costing hundreds of dollars. Sending a new technician or somebody who is not familiar to an more advanced class can be worthless, they will not understand the material and will be lost through the entire class. On the other side of the coin, sending an experienced employee to a class which is more basic can be just as worthless. Please do some digging into the actual content of upcoming courses to be sure the attendee is going to get the most bang for your buck. If the class doesn't cover something you would like you can ask the hosting agency if they can squeeze in some of that information, or you can look for another class that might fit your needs better.
I love training, I am probably one of the few in the industry that does. Training courses look great on a resume and can make a job which seems hard pretty simple. If the training fits your needs it can be invaluable, speeding up work, fixing problems right the first time, making the workplace safer, ect. However, if the material is too advanced or too basic it can be a big waste of time. Make sure you do your research into the training and don't go in blind.
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