Bermuda's air conditioning technicians have a new opportunity to further their qualifications and careers thanks to a new partnership between Air Care Ltd. and the National training Board (NTB).

In celebration of its newly forged alliance, Air Care and the NTB will host a four day course in Electrical Diagnostics training for air conditioning technicians at its recently renovated Mills Creek office.

NTB executive officer Michael M. Stowe said yesterday: “This course demonstrates the National Training Board's commitment to develop the next generation of qualified and highly skilled technicians, in order to maintain Bermuda's sophisticated infrastructure. In addition, it illustrates the immense value the NTB places on its viable partnership with Air Care Ltd.”

The objective of the course is to enable the trainees to acquire competent knowledge of electrical theory for effective applications in trouble shooting air conditioning circuits.

The 40-hour training course provides 20 hours of classroom electrical theory and 20 hours of workshop practical trouble shooting and training. So far nine people have signed up for the course, which will be taught by US based instructors, Mr. Bobby Petty and Mr. Dexter Henry.

These two trainers have more than 40 years of combined experience as technical college instructors and both hold bachelor of Science and Master of Science Degrees in Technical Education.

The course started on Monday and includes trainees from Air Care, Bermuda Air Conditioning Ltd, Arctic Air Conditioning Ltd and Cool Air Ltd.

Air Care's service division manager Kevin Roberts said: “Air Care is committed to ensuring that Bermudians are employed first in all of our business area.

“Our partnership with the National Training Board is evidence of our goal to assure that the education and training of the Bermudian workforce is geared towards providing a pool of local talent and resources for the entire mechanical contracting industry.” Mr. Stowe added: “Our focus is to train Bermudians and our objective is to eventually have a Bermudian force in terms of HVAC (heat, ventilating and air conditioning) technicians.”

The programme is available to everyone and those completing the course will be awarded a certificate in electrical diagnostic training for HVAC technicians from a technical college in the US

Mr. Roberts said that this was the first time that Air Care had held the course in partnership with other companies, and adde the real advantage of different companies being involved was that the training was accessible to everyone.

Mr. Stowe added: “It is a matter of sharing resources. The NTB is funding the instructors, while the use of Air Care's facilities and workshop saves more than $3,500 for the NTB.”

Mr. Stowe also hoped the partnership would inspire other companies to embark on similar initiatives. “What we hope for in the future is that other companies will partner with the NTB, such as Air Care has, and make use of facilities on a shared basis,” he said.

Mr. Stowe also said the partnership goes further, as last month the NTB and Air Care sponsored five Bermudians to train at the Technical Institute in Wisconsin in the US, with the NTB paying for the course, and Air Care paying for the room and board.

Changing technologies will also be considered, and Mr. Roberts added: “Things are changing constantly... so the course will be constantly updated.”