Taking a semester break from school to work at Heatcraft Refrigeration doesn’t mean you stop learning from great teachers. We have an aggressive training program that includes instruction from our in-house experts and travel to off-site training companies. To accommodate the amount of training and the level of engineering projects assigned to our Co-ops, our program requires a commitment of four work terms. The following is a term-by-term breakdown of the training our students receive.
Training will be a big part of your first work term. This will help you acquire the skills you will need for future projects. After each training session you will have the chance to use your new skills on the variety of projects assigned during your first work term. There's no better way to learn than to step right in and get started!
When you return for Work Term II you will have less training, and spend more time on projects. Training will include tools used for product design, as well as some instruction on key components of refrigeration. You will also visit customers and job sites to see equipment in use.
In Work Term III, you will receive even less training, and projects will be more challenging and require more independent work. You will be given more responsibility to manage small projects. This work term will greatly improve your project management skills.
In Work Term IV you will spend most of your time working on projects. Part of this work term will include working in the manufacturing environment. You will also be given a project for which you will have ultimate responsibility to plan, implement and complete. At the completion of this term you will have a taste of true project management.
A skill that is not used tends to be forgotten. In addition to the term specific activities every term will have recurring activities to continually apply and reinforce key learning from each work term.
