I find it amusing how someone can pull off a three month course and recieve tickets . iworked with an obt2 theother day and he didnt know how to change the nozzle on a riello. oranother recent gager of a g2 replacing a circuit board for a faulty stat. i know i cant change the system but does anyone find these situations allitle disturbing?
The 2 year course I took at Algonquin college in 1997 was a complete waste of time. A bunch of retired tradesmen that don't know how to teach, making me buy books I didn't open or need were problems I found. And the course did very little to train people on the equipment you'd find in the field. The college diploma is useless, all you want and need is your gas license. I don't even tell employers I have a diploma when I've looked for jobs. All they want is a G2 and 313D...
I think the 3 month crash course is the way to go. Getting to work in the field is where you learn. Some companies have great training, some don't.
having just finished the now 1 year course at algonquin, i wish I heard about the 3 month crash course. Algonquin did not help prepare for TSSA, a few worthless courses had to be taken, communications, ethic, computers.... I did learn some good things on furnaces and electricity that I am hoping is a good start for job training. I didnt like the course being called "full-time" when I was averaging 3 hours a day.... lab time was not enough..... I heard a couple weeks ago they wanted to go more online???? how about dropping theory to 1 day and the rest hands on and TSSA.....
my .2 cents....
I agree, the course for colleges was a waste of time for the extras, such as english, computers, books and etc...
I think to some degree that college did help me, because when I got into the trades I didn't even know the difference between a plumber and Hvac mechanic/techician. I wanted to become a plumber at first, or electrician because that's all I knew about that type of trade. Most people don't know what Hvac is, they think its either a electrician or a plumber.
I went to George Brown College for 2 years, having a dimploma is meanlingless in the trades. Everything you'll learn is either by watching someone doing it, someone telling you how to do it,doing the work, or making a mistake and learning from it.
I think the only use I have for the dimploma is to show my kids to go to post secondary.
I say to most guys to just go and take the 3 month course get your ticket so you can work, and let the real school begin.
Do you guys think they'll ever make gas tech an apprenticeship?
It does seem odd all you have to do is write a test. When in other trades you have to put 5 years in and as a gas tech we do a bit of everything.
Its been bantered about since the 80's off again on again.
I contracted (past tense) for over 25 years so I have heard and seen lots and what I haven't heard or seen I would believe anything to be possible.
Its being implemented supposedly within a year or two, though that has been alluded to before.
I find it quite humorous really though because there is a glut of gasfitters, working just about in anything else anyway ;D and the apprenticeship rules are really pretty limiting for small companies let alone financially affording to send people.
Its hard to say down the line about the Gas Fitter certifications being an apprenticeship or not. I was told that the Government want's to distants themselves from the Trades, allowing the Trades to be under its own governing body sorta like the college of physicians.
I don't know where the TSSA will fall in when the College of Trades is formed, because of right now TSSA isn't really part of the Government meaning there is no need for apprenticeship for Gas.
I think Gas Fitter trade should be under apprenticeship because of the danger of the work, from gas leaks to carbon mioxide poisoning should be taken seriously. They should form a tempory license for entry to the Trades where a person is signed up to work under supervisions on a limited amount of equipment or systems, like a 6 months license to let the person have a sense of the type of work and the amount of work that is needed. This would give the person enough time if he/she want's to continue or the employer to sign them up as a apprenticeship.
This is just my opinion
doesn't matter if its a 2 year course at a college like fanshawe, or a private school like north american trade schools in london. its the instructors you should be looking at.
you can go to fanshawe for 2 years and be taught by old school instructors or a private school like NATS and be taught by instructors who had to actually do the work.
if i was searching for the best school there are 2 things i would look for
1. how much equipment is available in the schools lab and how big is it? (fanshawe doesn't have a lab and all they teach you is the exam) (and by the way i am a graduate of fanshawe and they didn't prepare me properly or provide true hands on experience) but they get all the funding from the goverment because they are not for profit.. tell that to the administrators makin 6 figures its not for profit. the teachers are standard furnace teachers not high eff which is the new market and will always be
2. qualifications of the instructor that will be teaching you.
Fact: North American trade schools in london instructors carry all these licences with in their staff: G1, G2, sheet metal worker, major appliance technician, OBT1, OBT2, master plumber, master electricain, 313A mechanic and 313 D mechanic. (ask fanshawe for there qualified instructors licences, be lucky to cover 3 of them) ask yourself, which school should i pick for knowledge????? research your school of choice and you will find that the private schools are better quaified then any goverment supported school. Canada needs to wake up and put the money towards the best training not to a political school where they all get rich off the tax payer