Finding Tomorrow’s Foodservice Equipment Repair Technicians

By – The Editor
One of the greatest challenges that the foodservice equipment repair industry faces is finding new technicians to replace the ones that are retiring. What we have learned is that the next generation is not simply going to knock on our door, we will need to think more creatively than that, simply put, we need to go out into our communities and ‘make things happen’.

It is this philosophy that drove General Parts Director of Operations, Jason McGillivary to challenge his Branch Managers to reach out to their local college network to make sure not only that General Parts Group was on their radar, but also communicate the career benefits of our industry. Taking up this challenge was certainly worth the effort for our Indianapolis team who now has a new technician who has hit the ground running. Here in the story…

Luckily for Branch Manager Matt Schuetz he had an ace card in the form of Lead Technician Pat Finley who was already familiar with local college Ivy Tech through his personal network. Pat reached out to Ivy Tech which resulted in interest from third-year HVAC Technology student, Jay Beeman. Jay was intrigued by the diverse hot and cold commercial food equipment that General Parts services, and the variety it would offer him in his day-to-day work on top of HVAC.

Having formally applied, General Parts worked with Jay allowing him to come work with us before his college course was completed so he could gain some paid work experience and be sure that General Parts was a good spot to grow his career. These eight weeks of work experience proved to be very valuable.

Jay successfully graduated with an Associate’s Degree in Applied Science for HVAC Technology on May 15th and started full-time work at General Parts on Monday, May 17th! As mentioned earlier, Jay hit the ground running, in only his first month he has used his welding skills learned at college, saved the day fixing a gas leak, worked on installation projects, and continued his education with Pat to learn more about refrigeration outside of HVAC.

Not only has Jay been learning, so has General Parts. We have learned that outreach and community are vital. We have also learned that there is great talent in America’s college system, the talent which the foodservice repair community needs to tap into and work with to build a strong future.

If this blog interests, you and you would like to learn more about General Parts or need advice about how to select an appropriate community college program for our industry then please feel free to reach out to careers@generalparts.com. Inquiries from parents’ welcome.

For Indiana and Indiana border residents you can find out more about here.