HVAC Apprenticeship
Four years from helper to journeyman ready.
576 hours of Related Technical Instruction across four years, aligned to O*NET 49-9021.00, paired with 8,000 tracked OJT hours. Written for commercial and residential technicians by a Virginia master HVAC contractor.
The four years
Year 1, Foundations
144 hours · 60 lessons · 9 supervised labs
Safety and trade orientation, trade math, basic refrigeration theory, the refrigeration cycle, piping and tubing work, electrical fundamentals, motors, automatic controls, and EPA 608 certification prep. Soft skills woven through, finishing with a service call capstone.
Course sequence: HV101 Introduction to HVAC (24 hrs) · HV102 Basic Refrigeration Theory (48 hrs) · HV103 Electrical Fundamentals (40 hrs) · HV104 Automatic Controls (32 hrs)
Year 2, Commercial systems
In development144 hours
Commercial air conditioning and commercial refrigeration systems.
Year 3, Installation and diagnostics
In development144 hours
System installation, air distribution and balance, diagnostics, troubleshooting, and servicing.
Year 4, Heating, chilled water, and mastery
In development144 hours
Heating systems, commercial AC and chilled water systems, and applied simulations bringing four years together.
Self paced does not mean unsupervised.
Lessons are short, narrated, and gated. An apprentice cannot mark a lesson complete until the required seat time is real: the platform tracks active time, prompts when idle, and never counts an open tab on the truck dashboard. Quizzes gate each lesson, exams gate each course. You see exactly where every apprentice stands.
Current refrigerant reality is built in: A2L refrigerants, the AIM Act phasedown, and modern recovery practice are the default, not a bolted on update chapter.
8,000 field hours, tracked without the binder.
The RTI is half the program. Mettle's tracking app handles the other half: work process hours logged from the phone, weekly mentor sign offs, wage step visibility, and per apprentice records your office never has to reconstruct.
How it works