For teachers at TAFE NSW its important to know they are providing quality training programs to their refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) students.
Teachers from across NSW recently came together to assess their work.
“At the end of each year most of the refrigeration and air conditioning teachers from around the state come together for the annual RAC teachers meeting,” according to Steve Smith, the head teacher of RAC trades at the Kingswood Campus of Nepean TAFE located at theWestern Sydney Institute.
“We’ve been running this two day event for four years now with a different college hosting it each year.” The first event was held at Newcastle TAFE and included a visit to the CSIRO facility, while the second was hosted by Bathurst TAFE and featured a tour of the Electrolux facility in Orange. Year three was held at Wollongong TAFE with a visit to Hanwest and Heatcraft.
“This year was our turn and Temperzone kindly assisted with the high costs incurred to cover travel, accommodation and meals for teaching staff from Newcastle, Tamworth, Wollongong, Bathurst, Granville and Kingswood,” Smith said.
“Although not technically part of the state, the team from the Canberra Institute of Technology have also been attending this event since its inception.” Financial support was also provided by Refrigerant Reclaim Australia (RRA).
“The event would not have been so successful without the support of RRA general manager, Michael Bennett,” he said. Smith said one of the primary drivers for these meetings is to ensure teachers from across the state are providing a delivery and assessment package that is as consistent as possible.
“With tightening budgets the norm these days, it appeared as though our annual event was destined to become a memory. But I’m proud to say that the 2015 meeting had the best turn-out to date, with more than 20 attendees,” Smith said.
NSW branch manager at Temperzone, Damien Walsh, said the company made their conference facilities available and provided training sessions for the teachers on the Hitachi and Temperzone range of products. He also included sessions with the experts from Danfoss, Carel and ebm papst fans. “Everyone found the training sessions to be of great value,” Smith said. “It is very easy to lose touch with the real world and the rate of technological change that is occurring in all sectors of the industry today.”
To cap off the second day, Walsh organised a tour of the manufacturing facility. Temperzone manufacture almost all of the individual components that go into their units including the heat exchange coils, specialised internal piping, sheet metal casings, fan volutes, electronic PC boards and firmware.
The parts that are not produced internally are sourced from high end component manufacturers like Copeland, Carel, Ziehl-Abegg and Danfoss. Each unit is commissioned then checked for quality and correct operation by qualified tradesmen before leaving the factory floor.