Welcome back to Teaching the Unteachables, where we dive into teaching and learning
methodologies for professionals like you. This episode recorded live at the 2024
National HVACR Education Conference, where educators gather to learn about
new tools and trends. Learn more about UEI at UEITest.com.
All right everyone, thank you so much for joining Did You Know? the ESCO HVAC
podcast. So we're hanging out at the National HVACR Education Conference.
We've got 1,200 educators here and I'm hanging out with my my dear friend
Luis Keller from UEI Test Instruments. Luis, how you doing? I am doing great. How
about yourself? I am just almost overwhelmed with the amount of people
that are here just to to learn to be better educators, right? To learn about
what's changing in the industry, to find the resources that they need to have a
successful program. We even have a lot of contractor trainers that are starting
their own educational programs and they're here to look for resources.
They're here to connect with people. And so you have a new role at UEI. Tell me a
little bit about this new designation. Yeah, at the beginning of the year I
actually became our full-time national training manager. It allows me to be able
to go out and train in the field and do some of the classes that we have
prepared. It allows me to connect with a lot of the contractors, a lot of the
schools, and you know possibly some more content coming from us in the near future.
Lucky there. I know you're at the very forefront of training. Even when you were
really kind of in the sales side, you were still really much in the training
side. Yeah, honestly I mean sales and training they they go hand in hand. They
you know people need training to understand. It's amazing you know if you
last year we did the what did symbols on our meter mean? You know just even
getting down into some of the basics and knowing what what my meter does because
we manufacturers we've all come out with some really cool features but how do we
use those really cool features? So I think the the training aspect is becoming
even more and more important in our industry right now. So let's talk about
training and ways to connect with particularly our manufacturers like
yourself because we do have we have a lot of technology. If we look at the
world around us you know Howard talks about this all the time how in this next
next hundred years we're not going to have a hundred years of growth we're
going to have ten thousand years of growth. So technology is developing at an
exponential rate and so we're seeing a lot of new technology in our
instrumentation and I I know like as myself especially as a young technician
when I went to my local parts store my parts counter and I was looking for a
meter I was typically looking at the the coolest biggest fanciest thing had the
most buttons and features and knew nothing about what I was actually
getting into. Now we're we're looking at technology that's moving into those so
that everything has advanced capabilities. So let's talk about some
products let's talk about training in ways that UEI is working with the
industry to help educate on these technological transitions. Well I mean
there's been a lot of trainings as I mentioned we had some some videos that
dropped as well but we've been doing a lot of hands-on training getting down
like what are because the technology and the equipment that we're using has
skyrocketed right so going back to that a thousand years hundred years like it's
it's changed quite considerably so we've been trying to focus a lot more on that
training and one of the neat things though about UEI test instruments is
that we actually design and manufacture almost all of the products that you have
right so when you see that UEI label you know it's made in a factory that we
actually actually own have employees which has also allowed us the flexibility to be
able to put in the features that contractors need and as you know as we
start looking at those things it's kind of like big-screen TVs if you remember
way back in the day the flat screens where they were it's amazing how much
they can pack into into those meters now right for functionality purposes so
we've been working really hard on that to make sure that we have the right
features in our meters for the contractors and then again just going
over though what can that really do for you you know I think tomorrow I know
this all air later but tomorrow I'll I'm speaking about modern technologies and
modern meters and where a lot of those symbols really come in and how to
actually use them because I think once we start using our test instruments to
its fullest functionality we're just going to make better contractors it's
going to make their lives so much easier for them we're going to spend a lot of
time with equipment manufacturers here we have a lot of classes on new
technology that is coming to our industry you know when we look at this
evolution of technology we I mean we're really going through two different
transitions right now we've got a technological transition with equipment
we have refrigerant transitions and in that technological transition we're
going to be seeing a lot more inverters from our manufacturers I mean
realistically we're just a few years away from only having inverter driven
equipment in the HVAC and refrigeration industry and so it's important to
understand the tools that we have and the capabilities of those tools and so
I'm sure that's going to be one of your highlights is talking about you know
what can you do with the tools that you have and what does the new tools do that
the existing tools didn't do just because the technology wasn't there
correct and there there is a whole section on that so we'll be reviewing
that because I think we just we need to know what I love about this conference
though and being part of HVACS skill and excellence and ESCO and some of the
other industry events that I've gotten is that there is definitely a need for
training and there's a craving for training I think it's crazy just
hearing that you guys have 1200 people like to this conference I was at a
another conference earlier this year and there was 300 people and they probably
could have sold for another thousand the other thing though that I find really
neat about this industry and I just I want to say it is we're all here with a
common goal to elevate the industry and I like the sharing of knowledge you
don't get that in every industry and I find this to be a very welcoming like
let's build let's all get better I've had this conversation with a lot of us
mature technicians that have been around for a little while because we're only I
mean really if we talk about 20 years previous in this industry we had a an
abundance of technicians and so the sharing of knowledge wasn't really very
common you had to earn the opportunity to learn from your peers and your
mentors and that's really not the way it's supposed to be but that's how it
how it was because of competition so competition drives people to secure their
positions and in doing that they don't give back to the industry so I do
believe we're in a different place as a whole in our industry where people are
willing to share absolutely and you know what again technology though has made
that so much easier yes I can go to YouTube I can listen to a podcast and
we all get the same information so I think the technology has changed and the
perceptions have changed but again I love this because people want to share
and they want to grow and at the end of the day they just want to make better
technicians yeah yeah absolutely we see that from our manufacturers we see that
from our schools we see that from our trades associations it's just a new
place in our industry that is very exciting place to be and I'm so grateful
to be here sharing the opportunity to learn sharing the opportunity to give
back to the industry tell me a little bit about your plans going forward with
education with UEI well you know as I said we just rolled out this job role
full-time at the beginning of the year so I can't give all the secrets away of
what we have but you know there will be some some different learning
opportunities that we have I know that we're gonna be partnering with the ESCO
to get some some more videos and some more training up coming in the in the
next year you'll definitely see you'll see me around a lot more at different
events going on doing doing some of the talks and those type of things sure but
you know one of the my favorite things is I get to work directly with a lot of
our local representatives and actually go on site with contractors to do hands
on training oh really so we have a variety of things that are available for
contractors and we're pretty actually easy to find so you know you can find us
you can go to our UI test website and you'll be able to connect with somebody
we have an 800 number that we actually have live people who answer the phone
12 hours a day and quite frankly it's not too difficult to find me yeah yeah
I see you everywhere I go every conference I go to I see Louise and out
there putting a lot of effort into training for this year it's important
it's an important aspect of our training and you know partnering with with the
trade school so if you're out there at some of the trade schools reach out to
us let's let's have a little chat about about what we can do and how we can help
support you you know I know I'm based out of Indianapolis so I know there's
several trade schools that I work with locally but if you're out there and
you're listening let me know we can kind of talk about some of the options that
are out there because I think you know training that next generation you know
we've talked about the tools and how much they've changed and it how much it's
changed since five years ago ten years ago yesterday yeah yeah absolutely all
right well man we have so many things to dive into this year I know it's exciting
it's exciting right because you can't know everything in this industry no you
you can't there are so many different facets to this industry and everybody
has their their special specialization but we got to focus on what we can do
and how we can help that next generation and I'm just I'm super excited to be
here yeah definitely our I think our classes are going to be packed the
opportunities meet and greet are going to be packed and I'm very excited to see
what this year brings absolutely well I appreciate you having us on today
absolutely thanks for joining me once again all right thanks