HyChill wins funding to upskill technicians

Training in natural refrigerants hydrocarbons and CO2 will be provided to 80 air conditioning and refrigeration technicians under the federal government’s National Workforce Development Fund (NWDF).

A supplier of hydrocarbon refrigerants, HyChill announced the training in the wake
of its succesful bid for funding under the government’s $558 million NWDF.

As part of the HyChill project the government will provide up to two thirds of the cost of training 80 technicians across two natural refrigerant skill sets including: the service and repair of hydrocarbon refrigeration and air conditioning and; service and repair CO2 refrigeration systems.

The training package is an important step in building on the current skills base with
the use of natural refrigerants set to increase rapidly with the introduction of a carbon
price on HFCs from July 1, 2012.

It will also create plenty of opportunities for providers of natural refrigerant solutions.
The first round of training closed in March 2012 but further training opportunities will be made available in coming months and interested parties can register by contacting HyChill Australia, the Australian Refrigeration Association or the Green Cooling Association.

Under NWDF the federal government will spend $558 million over four years to support workforce development.

The partnership arrangement with industry varies depending on the size of the business.

For example, large enterprises contribute 66 per cent of the cost of training, medium enterprises 50 per cent and small enterprises 33 per cent.

Launching the fund last year the Minister for Tertiary Education and Skills, Senator Chris Evans, said the best way to ensure workplace training meets the needs of employers is to work with them to jointly fund and deliver that training.

Evans said funds are being directed to industries that are critical to the Australian economy.

“They are industries facing ongoing skills shortages which require employees with high levels of specialised training,” he said.

“The funding means exising workers will be given the opportunity to upskill.”