Amica and Liebherr have joined forces with the Whitegoods Trade Association (WTA) to establish a nationally recognised qualification for domestic refrigeration service engineers.

The three have worked to develop a plan that will be unveiled to a group of 300 domestic white-goods engineers at the annual Whitegoods Trade Association conference in Coventry on February 24 (visit www.whitegoodstradeassociation.org).

“The refrigeration industry, in general, has failed to recognise the role of the domestic refrigeration service engineer within the qualification structures previously available from a number of awarding bodies,” said engineer Lynton Perry, the author of the proposed qualification.

He pointed out that as these engineers work with explosive and highly flammable refrigerants, a nationally recognised qualification is vital from a safety as well as from a commercial and environmental perspective.

Better qualified engineers, he said, would result in fewer returns, fewer spares being used and equipment standing a better chance of being repaired rather than scrapped.

Mr Perry is part of a team that has been working to moderate the new City and Guilds 6187 refrigeration and air conditioning qualification.

The award contains several continuous professional development (CPD) modules covering refrigeration and air conditioning skills. One of these modules (Unit 232) is based entirely on the use of hydrocarbon refrigerants, but although it provides the necessary knowledge and skills for an engineer to work with hydrocarbon-based refrigerants, it assumes a good pre-existing knowledge of refrigeration.

Because of this limitation, it was agreed to seek an introductory course on domestic refrigeration including basic refrigeration studies but also encompassing all aspects of the F Gas regulations to allow engineers to then go on to take the new City and Guilds Unit 232  CPD .

Discussions are now taking place with City and Guilds and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to ensure an F Gas award (which is legally required to deal with HFC 134a refrigerants) is available for the domestic refrigeration sector.