Free natural refrigerants training common yet unknown in Europe

Over a third of natural refrigerant training providers offer courses free of charge, according to the GUIDE to Natural Refrigerants Training in Europe 2017, a wide industry survey published this month by shecco. The findings reveal a lack of awareness in the HVAC&R industry about the available offer.

To get a better understanding of the real cost of training courses, over 150 training providers were asked how much they normally charge for a course on natural refrigerants per person.

Surprisingly, over a third of the training providers said they offer their courses free of charge. On the other hand, when training receivers were asked how much they were willing to invest for training, less than one fifth responded that they think courses should be free.

“The disparity of the results among the two responses is not negligible. We could therefore conclude that there is currently a lack of awareness in the HVAC&R industry about the available offer for free courses,” said Alvaro de Oña, shecco’s Chief Operating Officer.

Paradoxically, the survey identified investment costs as a major barrier to wider uptake of training on natural refrigerants, especially for small businesses that do not have a significant budget to allocate for training their employees on the latest technologies.

“In short, the GUIDE Training Europe shows a growing offer for training on natural refrigerants, including courses free of charge, which the industry could have access to as of today,” said de Oña.

Offering free training courses allows small businesses to increase their know-how on natural refrigerant technologies.

Based on these results, the GUIDE identifies better communication about the availability of free training courses as a key step to improve knowledge of natural refrigerants, and their position in the market.

Background

Published on 8 May 2017, the GUIDE to natural refrigerants training in Europe examines the state of training on natural refrigerants, including a detailed analysis of the offer and demand based on an industry-wide survey of over 340 individuals.

For more information about this topic and many more, click here to read the GUIDE to Natural Refrigerants Training in Europe 2017.