MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. - HVACRedu.net has been granted accreditation of its HVACR online program. It is the first virtual organization (without a school facility) to ever earn accreditation from HVAC Excellence. Because HVACRedu.net wanted to validate that its programs are at the highest possible quality level, it decided to pursue programmatic accreditation of the HVACR program. Programmatic accreditation is where an independent third party, in this case HVAC Excellence, reviews a program against set educational and industry standards.

In seeking accreditation, the personnel at HVACRedu.net completed a self-study evaluation of the program against set standards in various areas: curriculum, faculty, student facilities, placement services, financial aid, advisory committee involvement, training facilities, equipment, and safety.

Upon completion of their review, HVAC Excellence selected a group of industry veterans with combined technical, administrative, and teaching experience in the HVAC industry to validate the self-study through an intense review of the program. 

The self-study, once completed, was sent to HVAC Excellence for their executive team to thoroughly assess for compliance against each standard. The site visit was conducted virtually by providing access to all the web-based online courses for HVAC Excellence team members, who spent many hours exploring the many facets and resources in the learning management system course structure. After completing an exhaustive evaluation of the online offerings, the review members submitted their evaluation report to the review committee.

Having reviewed the self-study and evaluated the program, HVAC Excellence decided to grant a six-year accreditation of the HVACRedu.net program with commendation.

The accreditation validates that the program is preparing students for jobs in the HVACR industry and verifies that the program has the needed resources and administrative support to accomplish their goals. 

Some of the benefits of HVAC Excellence HVACR programmatic accreditation are that students can have more confidence in the HVACR program, employers have the assurance that the graduates are properly trained, it creates goals for the school’s self-improvement, and it can assist students in the acceptability of transfer credits.

The Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA) and the United Association (UA) represent over 3,000 premier employers and a workforce of nearly 400,000. According to HVAC Excellence, MCAA and UA have made a commitment to recruiting HVACR technicians from schools with HVAC Excellence credentials as a top priority and will provide new hires advanced placement into their apprenticeship programs.

HVACRedu.net is now listed on www.5starcareers.com, the HVACR recruitment site where individuals can learn about career opportunities and find the top programs in the country to prepare them for success.

For more information, send an email to info@hvacredu.net or go to www.hvacredu.net.

Publication date:06/13/2011