In This Podcast:

Brian Cranney (pictured), president and CEO of Cranney Cos. Inc., talks about how he’s attracting young people to the HVAC industry. Posted on April 4.

Q: You’ve had a lot of success bringing young people into your company. How have you accomplished this?

A: We work very closely with the vocational technical schools in our area. We have co-op programs here, as that’s how the system works in Massachusetts. When they’re juniors in high school, they’re able to come out and start working in the field for a week and then go back to school for a week. We work closely with the instructors, help with the curriculum, and invest in the schools. This allows us to get some of those young students started in the business. They get to start applying their time toward their license during the school year and work full time in the summer. When they graduate, they’re hired full time and they’re on a fast track to getting their licenses.

Q: When do we need to start telling kids about the trades?

A: We go to grammar schools — seventh and eighth grade students— and do presentations on the great opportunities out there in the trades — predominantly plumbing, electrical, and HVAC, which is what we offer at my company. We explain to them the jobs and the opportunities both as vocation education and to continue on in college, as well. We tell them how much they can earn — which brightens their eyes up — as a lot of the kids may never have been exposed to the trades before. This visit gives them the sense that they may want to explore the trades when they enter high school and beyond.

Click here to hear the rest of this podcast.

Brian Cranney
President and CEO, Cranney Cos. Inc.
Danvers, Massachusetts

Publication date: 6/23/2014 

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