What makes a commissioning provider qualified to do the work that he or she does? Hands-on experience? A college degree? Years in the field? And, perhaps more importantly, how can we better prepare prospective commissioning providers? This session will address these and other questions underlying today’s industry
It will begin with a brief presentation from Betty Smith of Nexant. The firm’s recent work for the California Commissioning Collaborative explores opportunities currently available to industry newcomers and uncovers new prospects for expanding training and educational resources for providers. Ms. Smith’s presentation will be followed by an in-depth discussion of these issues, guided by Emmillee Hogan.
This session calls for the active participation of audience members. Bring your questions, ideas and concerns to the table and help determine what the next generation of commissioning providers is going to look like.
Making Connections: Developing Educational Opportunities for Building Commissioning
Betty Smith
Right now, in California and elsewhere, new “green” organizations are being created; new state initiatives for energy efficiency are being launched; community colleges are looking to offer new energy-focused programs; private businesses are developing and providing commissioning training for their staff; and collaborations for providing education and training in energy efficiency and commissioning are being explored. Although many of these initiatives do not explicitly address building commissioning, most do have a least a component focused on the built environment and involve the training of people in some of the fundamental background capabilities and skills required of commissioning and retrocommissioning providers. Among those activities most closely related to commissioning there can be economies of effort and maximization of payoff through the sharing of information, contacts, experience, model programs, and curriculum development.
That was the overall sense of opportunity that grew out of a study requested by the California Commissioning Collaborative (CCC). To explore what professionals involved in the commissioning industry thought was important in preparing a new generation of commissioning and retrocommissioning practitioners, we interviewed players in four areas of the industry: current service providers, educators, facility owners, and instructors or organizers of training through professional associations. Our primary objective was to identify actions that the CCC might take to help expand and prepare the commissioning workforce.
The results of our open-ended interviews tended to fall into five categories of options—influence on the content and delivery of education; marketing, public relations, and outreach; increased utilization of the tools, case studies, and other resources on the CCC website; intervention via public sector agencies; and influence on standards. This paper will report and discuss the suggestions made in all of these areas.
|