Colombia. LG recently inaugurated its academy, 'LG Air Conditioning Academy Colombia', an educational space that will serve to train people of various specialties that directly or indirectly come to be related to systems for residential, commercial or industrial air conditioning; among them, architects, builders, engineers, teachers, technicians among others.
The LG academy is located in Bogotá, presents five spaces, four of them are theoretical-practical workshops. In these classes will be given with a methodology where from the direct experience with the different product lines, the attendees will obtain more solid knowledge. There is also a lounge for teaching theoretical sessions.
The academy will present topics such as regulation, environmental impact, correct selection of equipment, installation, maintenance, among others. With plant staff dedicated to training, it is expected to exceed more than 1,000 trained people, between June and December 2018.
Official website of the AIR Conditioning Academy of LG Electronics Colombia: https://b2bmkt.lge.com/academiabogota
"One of the situations presented by the sector is that around 50% of people obtain their knowledge about handling and caring for air conditioners empirically, so we are giving the necessary knowledge and tools to achieve the useful life and efficiency with which the products were designed," said Fernando Rodríguez, Manager of the Air Conditioning and Power division of LG Electronics.
Additionally, as an incentive for students, engineering classes will be taught from universities and technical education institutions and those with the best grades will be recommended by LG with companies in the sector.
The objective is to impart the necessary knowledge for the application, installation and maintenance of air conditioning systems. This work is necessary, considering that in hot climates commercial buildings consume 60% of the energy and 20% of the world's energy is spent on these systems.
"It should be noted that estimates of inefficient equipment and refrigerants that affect the ozone layer exceed more than 50% of the equipment currently installed. The recommendations of the Montreal and Kyoto environmental protocols have required since 2005 the elimination of equipment with low efficiency and that uses harmful refrigerants. That is, Colombia is very late in updating its air conditioning equipment," said Fernando Rodríguez.
It is estimated that in Colombia about 200,000 air conditioning units are sold per year. A sector in which sales increase by approximately 7% and generate around 60,000 jobs, according to the Colombian Association of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration (Acaire).
"The objective of 'LG Air Conditioner Academy' is to professionalize the air conditioning industry in Colombia and, in this way, provide constant training in the needs of engineers, architects, technicians, installers, operators and consultants, in a direct and personalized way," added Rodríguez.
Official website of the AIR Conditioning Academy of LG Electronics Colombia: https://b2bmkt.lge.com/academiabogota
