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Health & Fitness

Company Continues to Grow Thanks to 'Earn While You Learn' Program

Southwest Florida business rebounding big with Paid Apprenticeship program. Applicant numbers are at highest numbers in six years.

Home-Tech’s Apprenticeship Training Program Boasts Success and Increase in Long Term Technicians

Fort Myers, FL — While many companies suffered through the recession, Southwest Florida’s leader in appliance and air conditioning service, sales and service agreements, Home-Tech, took advantage of the economic downturn to train and grow their employment base through their Apprenticeship Training Program.  The training program, now in its 23rd year, has turned novices into highly trained, motivated, and successful air conditioning and appliance repair technicians for Home-Tech. “A free education that provides a life long trade is worth more than gold. Skills like the ones our Apprentices are learning will provide them earning potential for years and decades to come,” explains Steve Marino, founder and President of Home-Tech.

Home-Tech Apprentice will begin his or her education in the six-week “boot camp,” which has been called “rigorous and tough, yet extremely worthwhile,” by Home-Tech Technician and Apprenticeship Graduate, Alex Hennum. Home-Tech’s boot camp takes place inside the Home-Tech training rooms and the classes are facilitated and managed by the company’s full time technical trainer. These new employees not only learn new technical skills, but also about Home-Tech’s policies, procedures and the benefits of being a long term Home-Tech employee.

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“It’s important for every Apprentice to learn things the Home-Tech way,” explains Apprenticeship Training Manager, Gary Close. He continues, “When we train our own technicians, we don’t have to fix bad habits and short cuts they learned from someone else. They learn how to do things the way we do things, the right way.”

After the successful completion of this six-week program, the Apprentices are paired with senior technicians for 45 days. During this phase, the Apprentices learn how to properly perform and execute service calls, with the supervision of their mentor/senior technician.  When the Apprentices have completed their 45 days, they will have compiled more than 260 hours of training, and NATE certification (North American Technician Excellence is the leading certification program for technicians in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) industry and the only test supported by the entire industry). Training does not end for technicians when the Apprenticeship program concludes. Continuing education classes are mandatory for all Home-Tech technicians several times through the year.

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Home-Tech actively recruits Apprentices year round. No experience is necessary to apply, and applicants must be at least 21, drug free, with a good driving record and no criminal record.  “We are looking for men and women with ambition who have the ‘right stuff’ to be a successful Home-Tech technician. If you have the willingness to work hard and have a passion for knowledge, then embrace the power to ‘earn while you learn’ with Home-Tech,” says Marino.

Interested? Apply at: http://www.home-tech.com/Apprenticeship-program

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