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INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
A decade of thorough training – Techniskills
By John Ackermann
After humble beginnings in 2011 , the Techniskills Training college in Montague Gardens , Cape Town , has completed no less than 150 learnerships in the refrigeration and air conditioning trade .
Learnerships , unlike apprenticeships ,
are outcome-based training and require far more documentation and admin . “ For each learnership we have , on record , all the required assessments and documentary evidence ,” says Geoff Hobbs , training facilitator .
He went on , “ Although it was never my intention to have my own training college and having to spend mostly six days a week at training , the development of our students has been heart-warming and uplifting . Many have arrived at Techniskills without much confidence but keen to acquire marketable hand skills . Seeing some today as supervisors and highly paid technicians , does one ’ s heart good .”
Geoff Hobbs started off working as a civilian in the Simonstown Naval Dock Yard and later joined the uniform force and was sent to sea . At sea , Hobbs was
Training equipment is located on 2 levels , refrigeration on upper level and hand tools and electrics on the ground level .
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responsible for servicing , maintaining |
training courses acquired from Cool |
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and repairing all mechanical services on |
Concerns in the UK for the SAIRAC |
All images by John Ackermann |
Geoff Hobbs with one of his treasures , a “ disposa can ” left to him by Andre Lemensisch on his retirement from Tru-Temp Air Conditioning . |
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board ship , including all refrigeration and air-conditioning systems .
While at Simonstown , Hobbs attended the first Safe Handling of Refrigerant training course presented at the Wingfield Technical college by members of the SAIRAC Cape Town committee . Handheld recovery units , probably the first in the country , were imported and
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courses . After leaving the Navy and doing some training for the Wingfield Technical College , various companies convinced Hobbs to establish his own training college . It took two years , assisted with labour and material from industry partners for Hobbs and Brian Simpson to set up and equip the Techniskills College |
A Carrier training unit donated to Techniskills by Ian Robinson of Coastal Air Conditioning services . The unit , with multicircuits , allows changing from capillary tube to thermostatic expansion valves , has glass tubes to view the flow of refrigerant in different phases and has shut off valves to assimilate problems , all aimed at hands-on training .
Rarely seen today , an early Dial-a-Charge , also donated by Andre Lemensisch .
Brian Simpson in his office surrounded by plenty of fittings and hardware needed to build his next demonstration model .
32 www . coldlinkafrica . co . za COLD LINK AFRICA • January / February 2021