Box Hill Institute – Refrigeration Training with Mr Berthold Schneider of BKKT, Germany

As we wrote about earlier in the year, Training Systems Australia was selected as the major supplier of Blended Learning training equipment for Box Hill Institute’s newly opened Integrated Technology Hub. The hub, designed by architectural firm Spowers, houses a training environment for electrical and associated trades and includes the Refrigeration and Climate Control Centre of Excellence. The systems supplied cover training in Electro Technologies, Renewable Energies, Electrical Motors & Drives and Refrigeration technologies. The systems offer everything from the development of underpinning knowledge and skills through to advanced practical and troubleshooting activities.

As part of this project (and our major equipment installation at Tonsley TAFE, South Australia in similar fields), we jumped at the opportunity to offer our customers a visit from the highly respected Mr Berthold Schneider of the Bundesfachschule Kälte-Klima-Technik in Niedersachswerfen, Germany (“BKKT”). Training Systems Australia in conjunction with Lucas-Nülle have a good relationship with the BKKT, which boasts one of the most advanced and modern refrigeration training facilities in the world. The BKKT has integrated (as well as assisting in the development of) much of the equipment now being offered to students at Box Hill Institute and Tonsley TAFE.

Mr Scheinder, better known as Bert, is a Master Craftsman in the field of refrigeration technology. His years in industry, his knowledge of the systems and his many years in vocational education through Europe and the Middle East, means he has a wealth of knowledge. The teachers at Box Hill took full advantage of the chance to pick his brain and pick up a few tips on their new training systems in the areas of Electrical control technology in refrigeration systems and Refrigeration cycles and control systems.

Plans were put in place to allow the teachers to participate in comprehensive training over the week which covered a huge range of topics and activities, all carried out on the training systems. Set up on Level 2 of the new building in well-designed training laboratories, the teachers did a great job, putting in many hours of training to cover topics including:

Circuits with main, auxiliary contactors and time delays

Design and function of a refrigeration cycle

Proper components connections

Pressure testing and leak detection

Function, setting and inspection of safety devices (low-pressure, high-pressure)

Testing and setting of correct heating parameters

Comparing and evaluating measurements in various operating states

Mr Len Raines, Senior Educator at Box Hill Institute in the field of Refrigeration Technology indicated that the training was highly beneficial for him and his team. Further the feedback from teachers and students has been very positive with “real components that relate to the workplace, easy to follow software, enjoyment of self-paced learning and simple setup” being among some of the key benefits Mr Raines said the Institute is experiencing from the systems. Pleasingly Box Hill continues to work on the integration of the systems into their learning environment and Mr Raines further explained that “sessional teachers can quickly adapt to the new delivery process and that evidence of assessment is made easier [with the online record keeping]”.

We also felt it was a very successful week of training and Mr Schneider very much enjoyed the experience too. Not only did he have a chance to visit Australia for the first time, but he was very impressed by Box Hill Institute’s Integrated Technology Hub as a whole, as well as the commitment of its teachers to spend time learning and working with the equipment and devising interesting ways to integrate the systems into their modern teaching environment. We have no doubt that the Box Hill team and their many students will get great use and develop excellent, industry-relevant skills from the systems in the Hub which are being used by the world’s best.

To learn more about our Refrigeration Training Systems please contact us on +613 9557 7993.