Graduate, 2011
Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technician
“Some colleges only teach the heating part of the course, but at George Brown we studied different subjects.”
Every day, Vahid Kermanshah has the opportunity to recall his days as a student in George Brown College’s Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technician program, because every day he gets to use the troubleshooting skills that he first learned here. In fact, it’s his favourite part of the job. “I love it, because it makes my brain work,” says Kermanshah. Today he is a Senior Service Technician for Reliance Home Comfort, where he works mostly on residential systems.
Arriving at George Brown with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Tehran University in Iran, Kermanshah had started to work in heating and cooling in his home country, and was looking to gain credentials and training in Canada. He came to George Brown because of the college’s reputation, and looking back he’s glad he chose it because he sees the program as more comprehensive than some. “Some colleges only teach the heating part of the course, but at George Brown we studied different subjects,” says Kermanshah. He adds that even the background information about topics like air quality indicators or heat loss calculations in different buildings are very helpful to have on the job.
Kermanshah says a favourite memory of the program involves discussing technical issues with his classmates. “We had actually very good conversations together. These kinds of debates made us become closer,” he recalls. Another strong memory is the graduation workshop test, where students were presented with different problems to fix: stressful at the time, but valuable now that he faces that kind of challenge on a daily basis. “Every day I wake up and I'm faced with a new issue. The concepts of heating and cooling are the same, but each system has been designed differently, so every day I face a different system, with different issues.”
