Australia is experiencing a shortage of qualified air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics, despite the high demand for cooling systems.
Around 26,000 of the national workforce is employed as air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics, despite millions of cooling units being sold. Ron Conry joined the industry in the 1960s, earning an Order of Australia Medal for inventing a component that's now used by every aircon manufacturer in the world. His business partner Sam Ringwaldt boasts two decades of experience and the duo know air conditioning is transitioning 'from being a luxury item to a necessity'.
Ron Conry and Sam Ringwaldt described refrigeration and cooling as a somewhat hidden industry, with many unaware of the work fridgies actually do. Mr Conry said consumers had increasingly adopted a 'throwaway mentality', meaning most technicians or 'fridgies' were kept busy installing new equipment. 'About 1.5 million units are sold every year, so you've got this competing tension of new ones getting installed versus all the existing ones that also need to be maintained ,' Mr Ringwaldt said.Last summer — ordered through suppliers that had only just recovered from pandemic-era shortages — culminated in a 'near impossible' situation for many Queensland businesses. Fridgies are lacking in every state and territory (with red indicating a skills shortage), while other occupations face regional shortages (yellow) or no shortage (green).Gregory Vaughan, who is the business manager at a Queensland air conditioning company, said after advertising senior fridgie vacancies for a month, he'd only got a handful of responses from overseas applicants.Jobs and Skills Australia confirmed there was more than 500 vacancies across the national industry, including almost 150 in Queensland.Mr Vaughan said customers often shopped around to find 'whoever they can' to get work done on time — and with less qualified workers on-site, 'obviously the job's not as good'. Since Queensland offers numerous types of licensing, electricians with lower level qualifications are often booked for cooling jobs instead of a fridgi
Air Conditioning Refrigeration Technician Shortage Skills Gap Australia
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