As a way to supply back to the community, and possibly help out some at-risk youth, I have started to offer ride-alongs for our air conditioning repair jobs.
If there is a kid in a local high school that expresses interest in studying a trade, the guidance counselor will contact me and set up a day for the kid to hang out with me plus see what I do, but there are a lot of nice adolescents in school who are simply not university material, but they still have a lot of job options.
For the last 20 years the air conditioning industry has been growing, and we need modern techs just as badly as ever before. Without spending tens of thousands of dollars on a college education, a young lady can become air conditioning certified and make a nice living for the rest of their life. I was fortunate enough to have an uncle who was an air conditioning tech, and she was the one who steered me into this industry. I like the idea of paying it forward, and showing these adolescents that they can make good money as an air conditioning tech even without having the best grades. Typically how it goes is that I will come by the office of the school on our way to work and option up the interested student. They shadow me through all of our air conditioning repair appointments for the day, for an “up close plus personal” view of the work. At the end of the day I supply them with our air conditioning corporation card plus tell them to call me if they want to get started.
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