ARBS partners with NABERS on scholarships

The ARBS Education and Research Foundation has partnered with NABERS to provide scholarships to HVAC&R sole traders studying to become accredited energy and water assessors.

“The ARBS Education and Research Foundation is committed to supporting further education of people employed in the HVAC industry, along with practical research into contemporary industry issues,” says ARBS Foundation Executive Officer David Eynon.

“The Foundation achieves these objectives by making financial grants and scholarships to individuals and organisations.”

Eynon says that because HVAC equipment in commercial buildings is a large consumer of electricity, any steps taken that result in less power consumption are of considerable benefit to the whole community.

“The ARBS Foundation was very pleased to be able to partner with NABERS to provide sole traders with the opportunity to become accredited assessors in the Energy and Water for Offices discipline,” Eynon says.

The ARBS Foundation elected to support a cohort of eight sole traders from within the HVAC&R industry for several reasons, Eynon says.

One of these is because “sole traders face difficult times” in the COVID-19-impacted economy.

“In this tranche of scholarships, eight were offered, and under the terms of the scholarship, 80 per cent of the course fees will be reimbursed,” Eynon says. “The scholarships were quickly taken up, which demonstrates the training is highly valued.”

This was the first time the ARBS Foundation has awarded scholarships in this form to individuals.

“It has proven itself to be a good model,” Eynon says, “that might well be a template for further scholarships in other areas.”