I have been a big fan of the James Bond movies since I was a kid. I’d be happy to talk for hours about which film is the best, which villain is the best (or should that be worst?), which “Bond Girl” is the best, and which Bond gadgets are the coolest. And, it occurred to me recently, that maybe a way to make our industry more attractive to potential young refrigeration technicians would be to point out the similarities between them and Agent 007 of the British Secret Service.
We all know how serious the technician shortage issue is — the statistics and the anecdotes are always grim. I was speaking with a refrigeration contractor the other day, and he said he knows of a number of companies that have to turn work down simply because they do not have the resources to get it done. And a shortage of bodies isn’t the only challenge: as refrigerant phaseouts and more stringent energy efficiency requirements lead to more advanced and complex system designs, it can create a “skills gap” for even experienced technicians as they strive to keep up with the changes.