ACR Journal

12 Volume 7 No.3 April | May 2021 EDUCATION It’s been a strange year for everyone. However, at the Grimsby Institute, senior trainer consultant Mark Denford and the team have spent the year executing plans for maintaining high training standards to make sure they were in an even stronger position for the return of students. It’s all about familiarity at the Grimsby Institute The Grimsby Institute has a long a liation with the refrigeration sector; providing industry-related education since 1967 in the port town synonymous with fishing. It has continued to develop during changing times, maintaining its status as one of the most prominent refrigeration and air conditioning training facilities and attracting students from all over the UK. Having joined the teaching sta just over a year ago, Denford, a former student of the Institute, has been making an impression on the department, “creating a structure that will improve the familiarisation students have with what they will experience in the industry”. Always Improving “We are constantly making changes across the department,” said Denford. “Our workshop area now includes dedicated FGAS test bays, four brazing stations, twelve cold rooms; two of which are set up for assessment, various air conditioning split system configurations, an air-cooled liquid chiller, and a water-cooled version. We have created an industrial refrigeration area that includes star delta wiring areas and an ammonia refrigeration plant. “The teaching facilities have been improved to include more working examples of equipment. It gives us the option to simulate a wider variety of faults and system configurations that would normally take too long to set up and achieve the real- life results that we would need. Currently, we are changing over our cold rooms to contain multi-evaporator systems because this provides the students with a more practical way of learning more complex systems and increase their exposure to equipment that they will be tested on.” The Institute oer a range of courses for various skill levels, from an Introduction into Air to Water Heat Pumps and Hydrocarbon Safe Handling through to the Level 3 Refrigeration Air Conditioning & Heat Pump Engineering Technician. There are plans to also develop oerings for both ground and air source heat pumps to meet the growing demand from the heating sector and “to meet the requirements of producing more multi-skilled engineers”. Remote Learning Speaking about the impacts of the national lockdown, Denford commented: “We usually have forty students enrolled each year that we split into two groups, but this year we reduced this number to twenty to make it more manageable. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the restrictions in place meant that we needed to adapt quickly to maintain the high level of education that we demand of ourselves. Remote learning was put in place, but it can be challenging to replace the hands- on experience students gain from our workshop. “Practical exams also had to be delayed with us managing just one assessment, which I believe has been the only one in the country. Attendance for this type of assessment is currently voluntary, and strict distancing rules are in place when they do happen. Of course, we completely understand that students may feel anxious about taking part in face-to-face situations and have supported them through that however we can.” Industry Support The contributions received from the refrigeration and related sectors have been “outstanding”, with Mark and the team “blown away by the support”. “Organisations from all dierent sectors have donated equipment and resources,” he said. “These include leak detection L-R: Senior Trainer Consultants Mark Denford and Jason Clarke Ellis Barker, Year 3, Rescue Refrigeration