For prospective HVAC/R students, selecting a school is no easy task. From classroom size to the school’s facilities, there are many factors to consider before a decision can be made. But, for those wanting to go into the HVAC/R industry, that choice is a little easier when they see the YELLOW JACKET Lab at Lincoln Technical Institute in Union, New Jersey.
Two years ago, Lou Vendrell, the Corporate Director of Product Development at Lincoln Technical Institute, had an idea. He wanted to turn a classroom on campus into the YELLOW JACKET Basic Refrigeration Lab — an ultimate place for learning the tools of the trade.
The partnership between Lincoln Tech and YELLOW JACKET began as a way to give students a unique learning experience while also introducing them to the YELLOW JACKET brand at the very beginning of their schooling. With the help of Michael Lanners,
Vice President, Domestic Sales and Marketing and the YELLOW JACKET team, the Basic Refrigeration room was born.
“It’s kind of funny,” said Vendrell, “I’ve seen students and their parents walking down the hall during school visits and have heard a parent say while walking past the YELLOW JACKET lab, ‘They’re using the best tools here.’ It’s really a selling point when they see it.”
The lab is stocked with $5,000 worth of tools donated by YELLOW JACKET, including: refrigeration units, recovery machines, gauges and everything in between. It’s even painted in the brand’s signature yellow and blue colors. In addition to the YELLOW JACKET tools available to use in the lab, students receive YELLOW JACKET tools in their tool kit that they purchase at the beginning of the school year.
“The students get to use YELLOW JACKET tools in all sorts of applications in the Basic Refrigeration class,” said Vendrell. “We’ve seen an increase in enrollment since the room was added, which has been great for the school and the industry itself.”
Each month a group of approximately thirty students begins Lincoln Tech’s Basic Refrigeration class. For some, it is their first time ever seeing an HVAC/R tool. Very soon in their schooling the YELLOW JACKET name becomes a permanent part of their vocabulary.
Over the past two years, more than 1,000 students have studied in the lab, and it’s a safe bet that those students have gone on to become lifetime YELLOW JACKET users.
Although the partnership is only two years old, Lincoln Tech is already noticing the draw that the YELLOW JACKET brand name has had on perspective students.
“Graduates of the program are now telling their friends and relatives who want to get into the HVAC/R trade that, ‘you’ve got to go to Lincoln Tech. They have the best tools,’” said Vendrell. “We’re looking forward to continuing to train tomorrow’s technicians on the best tools out there.”
