Company Providing Students HVAC Experience

A local HVAC company partnering with Cookeville High School to offer students hand-on HVAC experiences.

CHC Mechanical Contractors Co-Owner Tiffany Dabbs said the company has donated an HVAC lab and provided instructors to the high school’s Construction Trades Program. Annually as students build a home, they learn how to place ductwork, properly wire HVAC systems, and build HVAC fittings. Dabbs said the partnership has been a big help to the local HVAC industry.

“As we have this demand for workers you know there’s more work out there than there are people to do the work,” Dabbs said. “And if college is not an option which it is not for everybody, this gives somebody the experience to dabble in HVAC to see if that’s something they would enjoy and could maybe help them find a career in that field.”

Dabbs said the partnership has led to many students obtaining employment with CHC immediately after graduating high school. Dabbs said the hands-on experience helps provide a better starting point for students when they enter the industry.

“It’s just going to give them a leg up when they get out in the field so when someone hires on with us and we send them out to a job site someone is going to have to be with them to help train them and learn the tools and learn the stuff,” Dabbs said. “So if they have already worked some of the tools and worked with sheet metal and such things with HVAC then that just puts them a step ahead when they get out on the job site.”

Sherry Hamilton said the partnership goes beyond the high school level as CHC has a four-year apprenticeship school that high school students can enter after graduating high school. Hamilton said the school has a unique schedule to help students work and learn.

“They work four days a week Monday through Thursday and then they go to school on Friday,” Hamilton said. “So they are getting classroom experience as well as hands-on experience and that is the best of both worlds for them.”

Hamilton said CHC has been able to provide multiple scholarship opportunities to CHS students. Dabbs said she is looking to expand the partnership to other schools in the Upper Cumberland. Dabbs said she is hopeful to see the partnerships expand to benefit the HVAC industry in the Upper Cumberland.