HVAC Apprenticeship

Four years from helper to journeyman ready.

576 hours of Related Technical Instruction across four years, 15 courses, and 185 lessons, aligned to O*NET 49-9021.00 and paired with 8,000 tracked OJT hours. Every lesson written for commercial and residential technicians by a Virginia master HVAC contractor.

Get launch updates See the curriculum

576

RTI seat hours

185

lessons across 15 courses

diagnostic simulations

hands on shop labs

The curriculum

Four years, course by course.

All 185 lessons are written, built, and reviewed. Open a course to see what it covers.

Year 1: Foundations of the Trade

144 seat hours · 4 courses · 60 lessons · 9 shop labs

Safety and trade math first, then the refrigeration theory at the heart of every system, the electrical fundamentals most service diagnosis runs on, and the controls that tie it all together. By the end of the year an apprentice works safely, measures and calculates correctly, explains the vapor compression cycle, and reads wiring diagrams with a meter in hand.

HV101Introduction to HVAC10 lessons · 24 hrs
10 lessons · 24 seat hours
The gate course, kept tight so apprentices get into trade content fast: what the trade is and how the apprenticeship works, how to act in a customer's building, the safety habits that keep a new technician whole, and the trade math everything else stands on.
HV102Basic Refrigeration Theory22 lessons · 48 hrs
22 lessons · 48 seat hours
The largest block of the year and the heart of the trade. Heat, pressure, and the vapor compression cycle component by component, refrigerants and oils with A2L classifications as the baseline, tubing and brazing, leak detection and evacuation, and the EPA 608 prep block.
HV103Electrical Fundamentals16 lessons · 40 hrs
16 lessons · 40 seat hours
From electron flow and Ohm's law through single and three phase power, transformers, motors, and meters, built toward the skill that pays on every call: reading a wiring diagram and putting meter leads in the right place.
HV104Automatic Controls12 lessons · 32 hrs
12 lessons · 32 seat hours
Controls tie the refrigeration and electrical halves into working systems. Thermostats through smart communicating controls, safety devices, defrost, and motor protection, closing with a control wiring capstone and troubleshooting with meters on faulted circuits.

Year 1 milestone

EPA Section 608 prep is built into the refrigeration course as a dedicated four lesson block covering Core and Types I, II, and III. Apprentices sit the proctored 608 exam during Year 1, because federal law requires the credential before refrigerant work. Your apprentice is useful on real calls in year one, not year three.

Year 2: The Installer Year

144 seat hours · 3 courses · 42 lessons · 11 shop labs

Year 2 turns a helper into an installer. Installation, commissioning, and the verification discipline that separates a set unit from a finished job, then deep on air: duct design, fabrication, airflow measurement, and balancing. Heating covers the full catalog, electric, gas, oil, hydronic, and heat pumps, and the year closes with applied refrigerant practice.

HV201Installation, Duct Systems, and Air Balance14 lessons · 48 hrs
14 lessons · 48 seat hours
The install tech core. Residential and light commercial installation, commissioning and start up, and verification by the numbers: charge, airflow, and documentation. Then the air side in full, from fan laws and duct design through fabrication, airflow measurement, and balancing, closing with energy auditing, indoor air quality, and ventilation standards in practice.
HV202Heating Systems12 lessons · 44 hrs
12 lessons · 44 seat hours
Every heat source the apprentice will touch, in one course. Electric heat as the entry point, gas fired heat in depth from combustion fundamentals through venting, gas piping, and combustion analysis, oil fired systems, hydronics with controls and zoning, and the heat pump block that matches what residential install work actually is now.
HV203Applied Refrigerant Practices16 lessons · 52 hrs
16 lessons · 52 seat hours
The field refrigerant course and the largest of the year. Psychrometrics a technician can use at a register, superheat and subcooling diagnostics, instruments and calibration, the full refrigerant management chain from recovery to recordkeeping, the AIM Act phasedown in practice, and refrigerant piping done right, including long line applications.

Year 2 milestone

Heating instruction is scheduled to land before and during the apprentice's second heating season, so the furnace and heat pump lessons hit the same weeks the field work does.

Year 3: The Service Tech Year

144 seat hours · 4 courses · 40 lessons · 10 shop labs

Year 3 makes the turn from installer to diagnostician. The diagnostic method itself comes first: what normal operating conditions look like before anything is wrong, how to isolate electrical from mechanical problems, and how to run a service call end to end. Then commercial work: rooftop units, VRF, and VAV, followed by the deepest course in the program, commercial refrigeration.

HV301System Diagnostics and the Service Call8 lessons · 28 hrs
8 lessons · 28 seat hours
The bridge from installer to service tech. Knowing what right looks like before finding wrong, isolating electrical from mechanical problems, diagnostic trees, and instrument based diagnosis, then the service call itself run end to end with the documentation, pricing communication, and follow up that keep customers.
HV302Commercial Air Conditioning Systems5 lessons · 18 hrs
5 lessons · 18 seat hours
The commercial comfort systems a third year apprentice is now standing in front of: applied psychrometrics with mixed air and real loads, packaged rooftop units, variable refrigerant flow, variable air volume, and economizer and ventilation integration.
HV303Commercial Refrigeration Systems19 lessons · 70 hrs
19 lessons · 70 seat hours
The deepest course in the program. The commercial refrigeration cycle applied component by component, the special components and oil management that keep systems alive, case controls and rack systems, the equipment catalog from walk ins to industrial plants, and a commercial service practices block ending in the system survey capstone.
HV304Refrigeration Applications and Troubleshooting8 lessons · 28 hrs
8 lessons · 28 seat hours
The applications that make commercial refrigeration a specialty. Ice machines and the water quality that decides their service life, transport and specialty refrigeration, supermarket racks and parallel systems, low temperature and cascade work, then troubleshooting applied symptom to system on both the refrigerant and electrical sides.

Year 3 milestone

HV303 ends in the Year 3 capstone, the commercial system survey: the apprentice walks a working commercial system and documents it the way a service tech takes over an account. Equipment, controls, conditions, and recommendations.

Year 4: The Journeyworker Year

144 seat hours · 4 courses · 43 lessons · 11 shop labs

Year 4 finishes the technician. Heat pumps in full, from geothermal to cold climate inverter drives, plus the ductless, domestic, and room equipment a service tech sees every week. Then the big iron: chilled water plants, advanced hydronics, and steam. The commercial literacy block covers construction drawings, advanced electrical diagnostics, and building management systems.

HV401Heat Pumps and Unitary Refrigeration Equipment10 lessons · 37 hrs
10 lessons · 37 seat hours
Heat pumps in full, the equipment the Richmond market runs on: components and service, geothermal, cold climate inverter driven systems, and electrification retrofits, plus mini splits, heat pump water heaters, domestic refrigeration, and room units and PTACs.
HV402Chilled Water, Hydronic, and Steam Systems12 lessons · 40 hrs
12 lessons · 40 seat hours
The systems that separate a commercial service tech from a residential one. Chillers across every compression type plus low pressure and absorption machines, cooling towers and the water treatment that keeps them alive, pumps and pump curves, plant operation and troubleshooting, advanced hydronics, balancing, and steam.
HV403Drawings, Advanced Electrical, and Building Controls9 lessons · 31 hrs
9 lessons · 31 seat hours
The commercial literacy block: reading construction, mechanical, and electrical drawings with their schedules and submittals, advanced electrical diagnostics through applied circuit analysis and a wiring diagram mastery review, and building management systems and service work on buildings that run on automation.
HV404Simulations and Capstone12 lessons · 36 hrs
12 lessons · 36 seat hours
The program finish. Ten scenario based troubleshooting simulations across the equipment catalog, residential and commercial, comfort and refrigeration, plus an electrical scenarios assessment, crew leadership fundamentals, and the Year 4 final review and certification exam.

Year 4 milestone

The program ends in HV404: ten scenario based troubleshooting simulations across the full equipment catalog, an electrical scenarios assessment, a crew leadership course for the apprentice about to lead one, and the Year 4 final review and certification exam that completes the registered apprenticeship.

Lesson lineup and hour splits reflect the current curriculum outline and may be refined at filing. EPA Section 608 examination is administered by an EPA approved certifying organization.

How it is delivered

Self paced does not mean unsupervised.

Seat time you can prove

Lesson timers enforce required seat hours. The platform tracks active time, prompts when idle, and never counts an open tab on the truck dashboard. Hours are real, logged, and audit ready.

Gates at every step

Every lesson ends in a quiz that gates the next, every course ends in its own final exam, and lessons open in sequence, so the foundation is laid before the systems are built on it.

Built for a working schedule

Short, narrated lessons, 100 percent online and self paced. No scheduled classroom days, no full workday lost every other week, no cohort that fails to run and costs your apprentice a year.

Simulations inside the lessons

Twenty five diagnostic simulations are built into the lessons across the four years. The apprentice troubleshoots faulted equipment on screen and commits to a call before the answer shows.

A lab book for every year

41 proctored hands on labs run at your shop's own bench, each with a safety brief, station list, and sign off standard. Year 1 starts at the tubing bench. Year 4 runs a chilled water plant by the numbers.

Current refrigerant reality

A2L refrigerants, the AIM Act phasedown, and modern recovery practice are the baseline throughout, not a bolted on update chapter. When the rules change, the content changes that week, not at the next edition printing.

The simulations

Troubleshooting the apprentice gets scored on.

Twenty five diagnostic simulations run inside the lessons, from a dead transformer in Year 1 to a cooling tower dragging a chiller down on high head in Year 4. The apprentice reads the gauges and the meter, works the fault end to end, and commits to a call before the answer shows.

We built and own the simulation engine. It is not a licensed simulator bolted onto someone else's textbook, and there is no per seat simulation fee on top of tuition.

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

HVAC enrollment opens first.

Get launch updates