Colombia. The alliance between the AFT Academy and the University of Medellín, has among its advantages the future use of laboratories on the university campus, for the certified technical courses for the air conditioning industry, which both entities currently offer.
These laboratories have specialized machinery such as a controlled air conditioning recirculation unit (TARC), a computer-controlled wind energy equipment (EEEC) and a basic solar thermal energy equipment (MINI-EESTC), among others, of the Edibon brand, a Spanish company specialized in manufacturing technical teaching equipment and for research in the field of engineering.
Resources to which must be added another space, which is a room completely dedicated to making air quality measurements in simulated conditions.
University of Medellín and its contribution
However, all this would not be possible without the contribution of the University of Medellín, which is the entity that made available for these training courses these specialized laboratories, located on the university campus of Medellín, which would be the designated space for the practices.
Additionally, it is thanks to its presence that the courses can be certified, since this educational institution is the one that has the licenses, required by the control entities in Colombia, to be able to issue in a more formal way an endorsement of the knowledge acquired.
María Isabel Maya Mejía, head of Continuing Education at the University of Medellín, person in charge of making the bridge between the AFT Academy and her institution, explained that: "for the University of Medellín it is very important to promote non-formal education, through seminars, courses, diplomas and international certifications. As a university we know that we must join forces with other entities that validate the market, that are in the real sector and that can provide us with a lot of knowledge, experience, teachers and in turn attract different target audiences".
In the same way, he told us the process that any company or organization that wishes to work together with the university must go through.
It is part of the expression of interest on the part of the external entity, in this case it was the AFT Academy. Secondly, the university validates that the topics offered or proposed are relevant and of quality.
Once the relevance of the content is identified so that graduates and students can enhance their knowledge, skills and expertise in the market, we immediately pass the proposal to the faculty or dean associated with the subject to be addressed, so that it can evaluate the micro-curriculum of the course (for this specific case it was the faculty of engineering) and, finally, the cooperation agreement is structured from the legal point of view.
However, agreements can vary in different aspects, because they depend on the resources that external entities have. For this case, the teachers are assigned by the AFT Academy, for their excellent experience and trajectory, with which the university puts its platform, call and laboratory spaces.
Finally, Maria Isabel pointed out that the novelty and relevance of the courses offered with the AFT Academy occurred because they did not have other similar offers and, in that sense, they had an unattended target audience, important to address, even if the proposal was for spaces that were very short, taking into account what the institution normally provides.
