Senior Girl Trains For Career In Male-Dominated, Job Secure Field of HVAC

MILFORD, Ohio—As a petite, young woman who has real-life experience and education in a male-dominated vocation, Maddy Horton may have some “small” advantages in her intended career.

            The soft-spoken 18-year-old senior from Anderson is the only girl among 30 enrolled in the two-year heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) program at the Live Oaks Career Development Campus.

HVAC instructor Brad O’Donnell says Horton’s diminutive stature will give her an edge over some of her male peers because “she has small hands and can get into tight spaces.” But he says the more important advantage Horton will have on many of her cohorts male or female is that she is very good at her chosen vocation.

“She is one of the best brazers (pictured above) I have and a very good student,” said O’Donnell, who is in his second-year as an instructor after spending 21 years in the HVAC field. Brazing is a process similar to welding in which a lower-heat flame is used to coat metal with a film of protective brass.

         Another positive trait Horton has, according to O’Donnell, is that she “is very clean”—knowing the importance of creating and maintaining a spotless work environment.

When she graduates in May from Live Oaks’ accredited program, Horton will be considered an HVAC commercial and residential repair technician, qualified to build ductwork troubleshoot and repair gas, oil, and electric furnaces; hydronic boilers; and air conditioners and heat pumps.

Horton is certified in aerial lift equipment through Bobcat as well as CPR/First Aid as part of her curriculum. She will be able to take the Environmental Protection Agency Refrigerant Recovery Certification exam and is a couple of hours away from getting her OSHA 10 card with the rest of her classmates.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 10-hour online Construction Industry Outreach Training program provides entry-level workers with critical knowledge about a variety of OSHA-regulated safety and health topics to ensure on-site safety.

Upon graduation, Horton will also likely have something many soon-to-be college graduates will not have—a fulltime job.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that employment for heating, air conditioning and refrigeration mechanics and installers would increase 34 percent from 2010-2020, much faster than the average for all occupations. Job prospects for the field are expected to be excellent, particularly for those who have completed training from an accredited career-technical school such as Live Oaks.

O’Donnell says the industry tends to thrive no matter the overall economy and most students can expect to start in entry-level jobs at between $10 and $14 an hour. Ohio’s median hourly wage for the industry was more than $21 in 2010, with growing opportunities in management, inspection and green energy.

            Horton, who also plans to join the National Guard, is interviewing with a downtown Cincinnati sheet metal company because she enjoys building ductwork in homes. She can also probably find temporary or part-time work with her step-father, who is an electrician, or her grandfather, who took her on plumbing jobs when he baby-sat her as a pre-teen and planted those career seeds.

“A lot of my family were doing this kind of work around me and liked it growing up,” Horton says. She started in the Live Oaks welding program, which might explain her skill level in brazing, but thought a HVAC career offered the chance to learn a bit more diverse skills.

She has not been intimidated as the only girl in the HVAC program. “They treat me like them,” says Horton and she is okay with being one of the guys. She gets plenty of female-bonding in her other Live Oaks classes—which include English, government and advanced algebra.

Although she knows she will have to apprentice as worker bee for several years, she envisions owning her own company someday.

Students in the HVAC programs at Great Oaks can also earn college credits for a number of Ohio colleges and post-secondary schools and can eventually pursue advanced degrees in fields such as engineering, an option Horton is also considering.

Live Oaks also offers an adult HVAC program in which only one woman is enrolled.

-Live Oaks-