Filling a Void- The Need for T&B Techs

Test and Balance is just one piece of the sheet metal worker’s union, but a vital one. Without T&B, airflow is just airflow. With T&B it is a working system.

In this article by SNIPS News, the need for T&B technicians it brought to life.

If you are interested in a career in test and balance…

“We can’t do our job without sheet metal, and it’s almost like balancing becomes its own entity within the trade. Most members don’t get involved with TAB until further along in their career, and at that time, if they get picked up by a TAB contractor, they become a sort of apprentice journeyperson. We at Fisher Balancing have been bringing on more apprentices in the last few years to try and build our workforce,” Lohr says, noting she herself served her apprenticeship with a balancing contractor – she only ever learned sheet metal in school.

That’s part of the reason that they have been broadening their search for the next generation of TAB technicians. “We need to think outside of the box in regard to recruitment.”

“I recommend this trade to anyone who likes to do something different, likes to be out in the field, likes to think on their feet," Lohr adds. “Maybe you went to school to be a mechanical engineer, but at the end of the day, you're really a person that wants to work with your hands … we’re here to provide the training necessary to advance your career. Additionally, we want to affirm the benefits of collective bargaining and labor-management cooperation and the impact it has on advancing the industry.”

SMACNA-member Tony Kocurek, owner of Energy Balance & Integration, is on a charter school governing board called ACE, which stands for architecture, construction and engineering. He says mid-career sheet metal labor is scarce compared to the waves of retiring talent and new laborers, pointing to the decline of vocational trade instruction in high schools as one of the main drivers. He says innovative schools like ACE that focus on the trades can help address this problem.

But it takes time to backfill a “void,” as Kocurek calls it. That’s why he started an internship program with the University of New Mexico 7 years ago to reach out to mechanical engineering students in their twenties. One student, who was having his tuition paid for by his Pueblo, said he would never had gone to the university and committed to paying his Pueblo back through 10 years of service had he been aware of the Testing, Adjusting and Balancing side of the sheet metal trade – instead joining a local as an apprentice.

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Photo by Snips News