In partnership with Wilson Tech · Western Suffolk BOCES
A hands-on HVAC training program for Wilson Tech students. Start by learning how a real, growing HVAC company works, advance into paid hands-on field work as you prove yourself, and open a path toward a career in the trade.
The partnership
This program brings together a respected career-and-technical-education provider, an established local HVAC company, and the firm that designs and runs the program structure. Each plays a clear role.
Educates
Western Suffolk BOCES · NY State approved CTE
Wilson Tech teaches the HVAC and plumbing fundamentals in the classroom and shop, including the safety and theory groundwork. As a New York State approved cooperative program, it selects the students and approves the on-site learning arrangement with Cool Power.
Hosts & mentors
Long Island HVAC · 10,000+ customers
An established, growing HVAC contractor that opens its doors as the learning site. Students are paired with experienced supervisors who have done the trade for decades and who reinforce the classroom learning with close, real-world supervision.
Designs the program
Operating partner behind Cool Power
B² invests in people and technology — putting modern tools into technicians' hands so they spend less time on paperwork and more on craft. It designed this program's structure and the development framework that gives students and teachers visibility into each student's growth.
The path
The program is built as a genuine progression. You begin by learning the business and observing the trade, advance into paid hands-on work as you prove yourself, and can continue after graduation into a full-time career track.
Phase 1
Educational internship · UnpaidYou come to Cool Power to see the trade in action — riding along with and learning from technicians, observing how a system is diagnosed and repaired, and spending time in the shop learning the fundamentals. It's about building real understanding and judging fit, in both directions.
Begins around September
Phase 2
Work-study · PaidStudents who progress move into a paid work-study position as a member of the team, under a formal agreement with the school. This is where real hands-on field work happens — always alongside an assigned mentor who directs meaningful, progressive work.
Begins in January, after the school confirms classroom performance
After graduation
Technician Graduate ProgramThe ladder doesn't end at high school. Cool Power runs a full-time Technician Graduate Program — a structured rotation through every department for HVAC graduates, with hands-on work across the business and the potential to lead to a full-time position.
The destination at the top of the ladder
When each phase happens across the school year
Scroll across to see the full year →
Phase 2 begins in January, once the school confirms each student's first- and second-quarter classroom performance — the paid work-study lane does not open in the fall. Year one is expected to start with roughly 5–10 students, most of them first-year juniors, growing as Wilson Tech adds HVAC sections. Students move into paid work-study as they progress and meet the age and working-paper requirements.
What you'll learn
The program is built around a rotation through the departments of the business, so you understand the whole operation end-to-end — not just one station. You move through each department over time, learning what it does and building real skills as you go.
How the rotation deepens — from observing to hands-on
Scroll across to see Phase 2 →
A rotation, not a fixed block. Students move through every department over the program — typically 1–3 days a week on a set weekly schedule. This map shows the shape of the rotation and how it deepens from observation to supervised hands-on work; the exact cadence is set with the school.
Office and dispatch come first. Time with Kathy is the context for every field day that follows — students start by learning how calls become jobs before heading into the shop and the field.
What the department does
The nerve center of the business — incoming calls, job routing, technician scheduling, customer communication, invoicing, and internal procedures. Everything that happens in the field starts here.
What you gain
What the department does
Designs and installs ductwork and complete HVAC systems for new-construction projects — starting from blueprints, working alongside other trades, and building the system from scratch.
What you gain
What the department does
Responds to service and repair calls across Cool Power's 10,000-customer base — diagnosing system issues, handling breakdowns, and running preventative-maintenance visits under service contracts.
What you gain
What the department does
Installs replacement HVAC systems in existing homes — the core of Cool Power's business. Furnaces, condensers, air handlers, and heat pumps, often within older infrastructure and tight spaces.
What you gain
What the department does
Handles light-commercial HVAC — rooftop units, split systems for offices and small businesses, and commercial service accounts. Larger equipment, different code requirements, and business customers with different expectations than homeowners.
What you gain
You'll see HVAC from every angle — the office, the shop, the trucks, new construction, and commercial — and learn how the office and the field depend on each other. Alongside the trade, you build the professional habits it actually runs on: communication, reliability, customer trust, and showing up ready.
You get exposure to the modern tools the company is rolling out — modern dispatching, software, diagnostic technology, and AI-assisted systems — right alongside the fundamentals. The trade is changing, and you'll learn it the way it's actually practiced today.
Most training puts you at one station. Here you move through every department and see how the operation connects end-to-end. That perspective — plus the professional habits that come with it — is what sets a technician apart over a whole career.
A closer look
An illustrative example of how the rotation can flow — the actual weekly schedule is always set with the school. It shows the shape of each phase: observation-first in the fall, then supervised hands-on after January. Students move through the departments in small groups so each supervisor works with only a few at a time.
Scroll across to see the full term →
What students do in this phase
Students observe the skilled work — they don't perform hazardous tasks in this phase. The two groups are offset so each supervisor works with only one group at a time. After 2:25 pm, time on site focuses on general exposure and observation.
Scroll across to see the full term →
What students do in this phase
All hands-on work is supervised by a mentor, and the commercial rotation stays observation-weighted. The two groups are offset so each supervisor works with only one group at a time. Students are paid in this phase.
What you'll get
Exposure to every department of an established, growing HVAC contractor.
Hands-on learning of the fundamentals — observation-first to begin with, supervised hands-on work as you advance.
Mentorship from supervisors who've done the trade for decades.
A structured record of your development and growth.
A completion certificate and a recommendation from the Cool Power team.
Skills that transfer to any HVAC employer in the region.
A real pathway — from learning the business, to paid work-study, to a career.
Scorecard & feedback
Throughout the program, supervisors score each student across a clear set of dimensions — technical skill, reliability, professionalism, and more. Students get concrete feedback on what they're doing well and what to work on next, and the school gets an ongoing record of how each student is performing.
Supervisors rate each student across the dimensions and note their strengths and next steps. We measure progress from where each student starts, so it's a fair read on real growth.
Students see exactly where they stand and what to improve. The school gets the same clear picture — a running record of each student's development on site.
How it works
The program runs on the school's calendar. Students are excused from their regular Tech program for a set number of days each week, on a fixed weekly schedule, so everyone knows who's on site when.
Days per week
Students attend 1 to 3 days each week — the same days every week. The cadence is flexible to fit the student, but the schedule itself is set and consistent.
Daily sessions
Transportation
Students arrange their own transportation to the job site and back to school each placement day. There is no busing — it's a requirement of taking part.
Who it's for
The program is for Wilson Tech HVAC students the school identifies as ready — motivated, reliable, and genuinely interested in the trade. The school selects and screens every participant.
Ages
Mostly first-year juniors in the first run, with some seniors.
First cohort
A first group expected to roughly double next year as the school adds HVAC sections.
Days per week
On a fixed weekly schedule, set with the school.
Selection
Wilson Tech identifies and screens the students who take part.
Good attendance, solid academic standing, no disciplinary issues, and genuine interest in the trade. These are students the school identifies as ready to make the most of the opportunity.
Phase 1 (the educational internship) starts around September. Phase 2 (paid work-study) begins in January, once the school confirms a student's first- and second-quarter classroom performance. Students move into paid work as they progress and meet the age and working-paper requirements.