Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On station.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
I heard radio.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Eight o five here fifty five KERCD talk station. It's
Friday Eve meeting coming up and a half hour we
get here from Jay ratlif Our. iHeart edy aviation experts.
Enjoyable conversation with that every week, at least that's my perception.
I love talking to him. But in the meantime, I'm
gonna love talk having this conversation because I am concerned
about AI, and I know there's a concern from people
out there that artificial intelligence might eliminate their job. That's
(00:27):
a legitimate concern. Some people are already losing their jobs.
Mike Troubles on the phone. He's with the Southern Ohio
Technical Institute. Mike, good to have you on the show
this morning. Welcome sir. And will artificial intelligence remove HVAC
text from the job from their jobs?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Mike, No, I don't think that's gonna happen into very
your future are ever at all. You know, we're always
gonna need that cold can of Coca colaon. We're always
gonna need to be kept warm when it's zero outside.
We're gonna be need to be kept cool when it's
ninety outside.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Amen, for sure.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
And the trades are a great option. I mean, what
do you want to do spend two hundred thousand dollars
four years, get a woke degree that no one wants
to hire you for that might be eliminated by AI,
or do you want to go to work? I guess
in as short as ten weeks, Mike, I mean in
a career, in ten weeks. Have I got the time
frame rate to learn how to be an HVAC tech?
Speaker 3 (01:20):
Absolutely? I mean it's ten weeks. It's ten weeks. We
give you the basic essentials that you need to get
started in the trades, and you get all your certifications
you need to be able to work in the HVAC industry.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
So that's a.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Very very important thing. We basically we can take you
from a classroom to pay check in ten weeks.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
That's truly amazing, not four years, ten weeks, and not
with a couple hundred thousand dollars even one hundred thousand
dollars in debt for a four year degree if you
had to pay out a pocket and I know they're
financing options. I mean, we can dive onto this a
little bit, but tuition is very reasonable for a ten
week program. Sixty five hundred bucks. Have I got that right?
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yes, it is sixty five hundred dollars, that is correct.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
And by the way, Bryan, the certifications that you get
in that ten week program are more aggressive and you
get actually five certifications in the ten weeks, where a
lot of the other six hundred dollar programs only give
you two certifications.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Wow. So you're more qualified to get one of the
open jobs that are out in the world than someone
who took the longer program. And question Mike, and I
think I know the answer this one because I'm at
your website, which my listeners can find at s otih
HVAC so technical Uit, so ot I, sodh HVAC dot com.
(02:43):
Are there job opportunities out there for folks in the
hva C business there?
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Mike, Oh, are you kidding me?
Speaker 3 (02:50):
It's growing so fast, it's just unbelievable. You know, we're
gonna need We're going to be facing a shortage of
around one hundred thousand technics is coming up here in
the next five to six years, okay, and you know
we just don't have.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Those technicians to uh to fill the spaces. Uh.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
We're having what we call in the industry. A uh,
the silver tsunami. That means all the silver haired guys
like myself and you're the other guys that are in
their fifties and going in their sixties, they're retiring, okay,
and there's nobody do to take their place. We need
these young people, We need this young blood in there
and and pitching in and taking over.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
Well. Given the demand for HVAC career opportunities out in
the world, the fact that there is a great opportunity
to get employment and there aren't enough bodies there to
to take those jobs, there might sounds to me like
the opportunity for an increase in pay might exist. The
laws of economics suggest supply and demand. If there's a
limited supply, then the money might even get better than
(03:53):
it already is.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Absolutely, it's uh, you know, I'm glad you brought that up.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Mind.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
You know, the the the money in the trades have
really gone up in the past few years, and the
opportunities okay, that you can do in the trades have
gone up simply because the HVAC industry, the technology that's
going into the equipment is course is a lot more advanced.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
So the skill level of these young technicians.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Coming into the field, they have to become more advanced,
and we have to training to do that. Therefore, it's
like a you know, a regular family doctor or a
heart surgeon. Okay, we have to specialize them and get
them prepared for this new equipment that's coming in in
this new technology.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Well it is indeed new equiping, new technology. I've had
a geothermal system now for all maybe ten years, and
it's just basically a computer. I opened that thing up
and it's just all electronics in there. So you'll train
folks how to work on that kind of thing. And
that's that's the way everything's going, right.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
Yeah, yeah, well that and you know, we got all
the new stuff that's coming in and all the new
technology is really becoming a lot more advanced. For example,
you know the new heat bumps that are out on
the market. A few of those things they're capable of
extracting heat down in minus ten now, so that you
didn't have that technology ten to fifteen years ago.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, what kind of money are we talking about, big
elephant in the room is okay, sounds good jobs there,
it's a quick course. I can get on my feet
and earning money in a very short period of time.
What kind of money were talking about, Mike.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
We're usually talking entry level, why they're being trained, around
the twenty dollars an hour level while they're being trained,
or eight hundred dollars a week, or if you want
to look at it on an annual basis, about forty
thousand a year while you're being trained. That's a base salary,
not including your overtime. So I would say by the
time you would lead, you actually get settled into your job,
(05:53):
trained and doing what you need to be and they
can actually the company that you're working for, can actually
start doing their charge out timed against you. You should
be up to the seventy five eighty thousand dollars a year,
I mean somewhere in the next three to five.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
Years, Mike. Joe Strecker is filling out the application now,
he said, but that's eighty grand, you know, for ten
weeks of education, and no doubt. I'm sorry, there's no
downside risk on this one. What's it like being in
the HVAC trade on a day to day basis, I mean,
(06:28):
what are you kind of doing day to day?
Speaker 3 (06:31):
Well, you know, I'm glad you brought that up and
I want to bring another thing. I just bring it
to your attention real quick, Bryd. You know, we're actually
celebrating what we call a National Skilled Trades Day, which
was yesterday. The skilled trades have been basically swept under
the rug and we haven't been It hasn't been pitched
by the high school counselors.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Or any name. But let me tell you.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You know, the skilled trades, okay, basically keep everything all
the all the every aspect of the building facets, every
aspect of.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
The building industry.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Uh, everything from maintenance to new construction.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Uh, we keep.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Everything hitting on a from keeping hitting on all eight
I should say, yeah, we keep your food cold, we
keep your environment clean and uh and your air clean
to breathe.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I mean, it's it just goes on and on and on.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So we're finally getting recognized, okay that you know, Hey, listen,
this is a very viable trade. And and now the
all the not just the hv A C trade, all
of them, the plumbers, the electricians, Listen, we've been swept
under the rug for a long time and it's about
time you know that everybody understands that, you know, we
(07:44):
are an essential part of this society too. Okay, we
need to be recognized and uh and I think that's
that's all making a full circle now.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Brian, Amen. You know absolutely there's no argument against that
at all. And we rely on so many people during
this type of work, and I think so many people
take it for granted. You know, I'm refrigerators broke and
I don't know what to do and just call somebody. Okay,
you're calling somebody who's keeping the world running. And that's
the trades and the jobs that aren't going to be eliminated.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Is this commercial as well as residential that you train
people for, Mike.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
Actually, what we do is we do we really hit
on a couple of key things. The refrigeration cycle, temperature
pressure relationships. We hit heavy on that so they understand
what they're doing, and then we also hit heavy on electrical.
Those two key things is what our school really zero
(08:38):
ends on, zero ends on because that is what they need,
the boots on the ground that they need to really
make their career grow, whether they decide to go with
install part of it or whether they decide to go
with the servicing end of it. We given the boots
on the ground train they need to get started, and
of course the certifications they need so.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
You have the core information you need. And then presumably
if they if a person graduates from from the Southern
Ohio I'm sorry, I stumbled here, Southern Technical Institute, they
would go to let's say, a commercial manufacturer, a commercial
HVAC and that's where they would learn the specific skills
for that particular company, like a journeyman apprentice kind of relationship.
(09:21):
They get the extra skills, the icing on the cake
when they're on the ground, working and earning.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yes, because here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Every company is different, okay, Every company has a different
job approach. So they they would like to they like
to get these guys okay, out of our school that
are all licensed, they all have their certifications in need,
and they like to break them in and train them, okay,
to be applicable to their company and their job approach.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Well, I was thinking the reason, I guess kind of
the reason I asked that I was involved in a
litigation involving a very very large food manufacturer was a
Kannager facility out Nebraska, and it had an anhydrous ammonia
refrigeration system that blew up. So obviously they need help
fixing that thing. But that's a that is a horse
of a different color. Those Anhyder's ammonia systems.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yes, let me tell you something. I can go way back.
Of course, I've been doing this since nineteen seventy one
seventy two.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
But I went to work.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
I did work for a company in the local PIPI Resunion, L. J. Quinn,
back in the late seventies, and we worked on a
few of those ammonium systems, and I'm here to tell
you when those spring of league, okay, it clears it
out of We could always tell how serious it was
by the For an example, one of the whole companies
here was Hut and Bowner meets and we got over there.
(10:41):
They had that old frack commonia system in there, and
when by the time we got there, all the help
was out in.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
The parking lot. Yeah, okay, it clears you how quick?
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yes, it does. And we'll also ruin all the product
in the refrigerator facilities, notably like a one point five
pounds of mint row it out absolutely.
Speaker 3 (11:02):
But you know, as bad as it stinks, Brian, you
know it's not the the aquamoni and stuff.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
It's not.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
It doesn't hurt the actually it dissolves into the atmosphere.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
But yeah, it's bad. It's a bad one, that's for sure.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
That's why they need experts that know the HVAC world
and the experience and have it. You start at the
Southern Ohio Technical Institute sod dosh eight dot hvac dot com.
Just Trekker will add the link to your site up
on my blog page fifty five Carsey dot com. There's
opportunities out there and great pay and you know, I
still reel of the fact that you're ready to hit
the ground working in ten weeks. That's just phenomenal for
(11:38):
the lo low price of sixty five. And I understand
you can get help with paying the tuition costs.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yes you can. Yeah, we do have We do have.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
In house financing, okay that we have at school. So
you know, you can basically come in and you can
make a reasonable down payment if you don't have it all,
and we can actually over two year period and you
can finish off you're dead and it's usually it's under
one hundred and fifty bucks.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
A month, fantastic, and you'll be working so you have
money to make the payment. Back to the Southern Ohio
Technical Institute. Mike Trible as there is no bad news
in our conversation, and I know that the trades are
in desperate need of young people. Don't go to college,
get in the trades, enjoy life, start working and you'll
have a career and it'll serve you well throughout your life.
Mike Trible, thanks for the great work you're doing over there,
(12:30):
the people you're employing, and I'll hope that some of
my listeners pass the information along to the young people
out there and you get the phone ringing today.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
Mike, Yeah, absolutely, thank you so much, and I'm glad
that everybody is coming on board with the trades, and yeah,
we look forward to getting a lot of young people
out there, and Morgan.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
For sure, I know you do.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
Mike. Thanks again, we'll talk again down the road. Take
care and have a wonderful weekend. Eight nineteen at fifty
five care see the talk station