Our Vision
Imagine being able to learn how to be a technician in the HVAC/R trade industry right next to an experienced technician. CMS Nextech’s apprenticeship program helps aspiring technicians learn the ins and outs of Commercial HVAC/R.
Our goal for the program is to develop quality technicians who see HVAC/R as a long-term career choice. Through the Apprenticeship Program apprentices receive free education and certifications.
CMS Nextech trainers challenge apprentices, give apprentices opportunities to practice, answers questions, and provide apprentices the resources and time to learn and kick start their career in HVAC/R.
Apprentices go out on service calls and preventative maintenance work orders with their trainer during a regular 40-hour work week and have 10 hours of studying and work assignments every week.
CMS Nextech has been really lucky in that the skills gap, or the skilled labor shortage that has impacted so many other trades, has not affected us. We are the premier, and largest privately held national commercial HVAC contractor in the United States. Our business grew tremendously in 2017 and our skilled labor force was able to keep pace with that growth at the local, regional, and national levels, primarily because of proper planning, but also because CMS Nextech is a great place to work. We are a technician-owned and operated company and have been since our founding 25 years ago. As a result, we place a major emphasis on valuing our technicians and ensuring they are properly trained, and have the tools and support they need to succeed. They truly are the core of our business and culture.
Nevertheless, we recognize that we cannot escape the effects of the skilled labor shortage forever, especially given our projected rate of growth. So we designed and have begun implementing our own apprenticeship program in order to meet that challenge head on before it impacts us. Recruiting and training our own skilled labor force, combined with a dedicated recruiting process for existing technicians, will definitely do that for us.
Our current apprenticeship program involves classroom study, a dedicated text book, and real-world field training so that the lessons learned in the classroom are immediately put to work. Our apprentices are actual paid employees from the day they enter the program. Nevertheless, they are given homework assignments and written tests, as if they were students as well. And they are expected to achieve at least a 90% grade in order to move to the next level. What is unique about our program too is that we have assembled some of the best technicians in the country to serve as instructors, each of whom is assigned to teach and train one apprenticeship at a time. We are able to provide one on one attention throughout the program, which is better than any other trade school or university for that matter. If you are dedicated to the process and show a strong work ethic you will succeed and so will we.
Currently, we are also in the process of working with the Federal Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship to have our program certified on a national level. Technically, we have five programs, each lasting one year, with a minimum of 1800 hours of field training and 150 hours of classroom work annually. The DOL awards the technician a certificate – like a diploma – upon his or her successful completion of each level. Technicians are not required to pass all five levels. Rather, an apprentice who successfully completes the first six months of training will be placed in the field to start working on his own. The apprentice has the option, however, to continue in the program for as long as he or she wants and we encourage them to do so as with each level comes more knowledge and skill, and of course higher pay! At the end of the day, an apprentice who has completed all five years of the program has a much greater chance of entering management, which obviously carries with it more opportunities and better benefits. If all goes well, the program should be approved by the DOL sometime early next year.
We have learned this is a time-consuming and expensive process for us. If the owner of the company had not gotten behind it, and given us the resources to do this properly, we could not have done so. But it also takes a commitment from all levels of management especially those in charge of the operations side of the business as they are the ones who ultimately have to recruit, train, and educate the apprentices, but most importantly, they have to grow their businesses to ensure that our customer demands are met, and the graduates of our programs are successful.
Experienced Trainers
CMS Nextech’s Apprenticeship Program application process is selective, where we provide apprentices education and training in areas where we have selected CMS Nextech trainers in the 29 states we self-perform in.