DANVERS — Learning about heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration may not be rocket science, but it sure seems that way, at least to the untrained eye.
To become an HVACR technician, you need the wiring skills of an electrician, the pipe-fitting skills of a plumber, and the fabrication skills of a sheet metal worker. You have to know about air flow, aerodynamics, physics and how refrigerant works.
Those who keep an eye on the region’s workforce, however, say such skilled technicians are hard to find at a time when demand for them is soaring.
That’s because construction work on the North Shore slowed to a crawl during the recent recession, explained Mary Sarris, the executive director of the North Shore Workforce Investment Board in Salem.
The result, she said, was that many people stopped thinking of construction as a viable trade, and many tradesmen stopped taking on apprentices.
Brian Cranney, president of Danvers-based Cranney Companies — a heating, ventilation, air conditioning, plumbing, electrical and maintenance outfit — said he cannot find enough trained technicians to staff his work vans. The average age of his company’s technicians is 55.
To address the lack of a pipeline for skilled HVACR technicians, the state’s newest vocational school — the sprawling Essex Technical High School on Route 62 in Danvers — added a career technical program when it opened in the fall of 2014.
It was one of four new career technical areas added at the $133 million school, along with plumbing, biotech and dental assisting. The school is a merger of the former Essex Agricultural and Technical High, North Shore Tech in Middleton and vocational programs at Peabody High.
The HVACR program at Essex Tech was added based on the results of a labor market survey conducted by the workforce investment board, said Carol Sullivan, Essex Tech’s career and technical education director.
“As you know, a lot of people are retiring, and they do not have apprentices going into these programs, so that is one of the reasons why it was done,” Sullivan said. “There is a real need; just in the trades, you can see that everybody is graying out and you need people to fill in.”
Sarris said whenever vocational technical schools want to add programs, they are required to check with their local workforce investment board to make sure there is a demand for the skills they want to teach.
The number of jobs in this area is forecast to increase 20 percent over the next 10 years, she noted. Construction is considered a critical industry on the North Shore, and technicians in the field are well-paid, though not as well as some other trades, like electricians.
The average entry wage for HVACR technicians is $42,000 a year, the median wage is $57,000, and experienced technicians can average $68,000, according to Sarris.
High demand
“The demand for people to work on residential and commercial heating and air conditioning systems is very high,” said Cranney, who’s also a director of Essex Tech’s foundation and a supporter of the regional vocational school. He said the lack of a ready pipeline for new technicians is also due to the emphasis by many high schools on sending students to college.
Many of these students come out of college with a degree, he said, but they also graduate with a lot of student loan debt, and they are unable to get a job.
Students have to learn many different skills to become an HVACR technician, but Cranney said it takes less time to become a licensed technician than it does to become a licensed plumber or electrician.
Cranney, who would like to start working with Essex Tech students through a co-op program next year, said students who graduate Essex Tech with an HVACR major are just a year-and-a-half away from earning their license.
Popular with students
The school’s HVACR program has proven popular over the past two years, said Sullivan, and as it grows, it is expected to have 15 students enrolled each year per grade, for a total of 60 students.
Instructor Miguel Perez said the program currently has 16 freshmen, 12 sophomores and three juniors. It’s expected that next year, students will be enrolled at all four grades.
“There is a lack of people going into the trade; it’s a tough trade to go into,” said Perez, who has been working in the field for 40 years. Part of the reason is there are a lot of different skills to learn, he added. And the work is not easy. The job can mean working long hours on hot days, Perez said.
Grant will expand program
While the state and 17 North Shore cities and towns spent about $133 million to construct the school, there was not sufficient money to outfit the cavernous HVACR laboratory.
That all changed this month when the regional school district was awarded a $144,186 grant from the state 2016 Workforce Skills Capital Grant Program, money that will pay to outfit the lab with tabletop walk-in coolers, forced hot air furnaces, gas-efficient heating/cooling systems, and other equipment.
The money will also allow the school to double its capacity to train HVACR technicians.
“That’s perfect,” Perez said about the grant. “We need more equipment.” He described much of the existing equipment students work with as “all banged up and donated. They are only good for parts.”
Further, school officials say that with the added equipment, they plan to offer evening HVACR courses for adults who may want to switch careers.