About This Map
The Careers in Climate Control Technology map explores an industry exploding with job opportunities in heating, air conditioning, and refrigeration technologies (HVAC/R), describing diverse occupations across the industry, charting possible progression between them, and identifying the sorts of credentials necessary to do them well.
This interactive map is designed for a broad audience including educators, career-advisors, job-seekers, employers, policy-makers, and workforce professionals. It demonstrates the breadth of the HVAC/R industry, some of its critical occupations, and the multitude of advancement routes (over 150!) between jobs and sectors. The map also includes a section on “green” jobs within the industry; these jobs have a mission to design, build, and operate high-quality, healthier, and more energy-efficient homes and commercial and industrial buildings.
The Careers in Climate Control Technology map was developed by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council in conjunction with Santa Rosa Junior College and a panel of Subject Matter Experts from across the HVAC/R industry. This group of experts convened at Laney College, to identify, organize and articulate the top 40 jobs in the sprawling and complex HVAC/R industry. Inspiration for the Careers in Climate Control Technology map came from the Solar Career Map developed by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. in 2013 with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative.
Funding for the Map
Funding for the Careers in Climate Control Technology map was made possible by the Proposition 39 Clean Energy Workforce Program Grant (Prop. 39). Prop. 39 is a California statewide initiative that closed corporate income tax loopholes and transferred $550M annually to the Clean Energy Job Creation Fund from 2013 – 2018. The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office invested ~$6M from the fund each year in clean energy workforce training programs across the state’s 114 community colleges.
The Bay Area Region is well known for its confluence of innovation, technology, energy-efficiency building codes and leadership in the fight against Climate Change. The region’s community colleges provide many of the trade and technical training options for the clean energy workforce, and are essential to providing the regional HVAC/R industry with adequately trained workers. As the Prop. 39 fiscal agent, Santa Rosa Junior College commissioned the Interstate Renewable Energy Council to develop the map.
