Equipment Service Training Program in Next Week, More Cities Planned

The latest form of "tech" to hit the food and foodservice industries takes the form of an acronym: TECH, short for Training, Education, Certification and Hands-On. TECH is an initiative sponsored by the Indianapolis-based Commercial Food Equipment Service Association (CFESA) and addresses what CFESA calls a "tremendous need for technical training" among entry-level equipment technicians in food processing and preparation.

The latest training event will be held at the CFESA SPRING CONFERENCE May 19-21, at Chicago's Swiss Hotel. Following its inaugural TECH Training Program held January in Tampa, FL, a second training program hosted in Charlotte, NC, was successful enough to justify the Chicago program. Additional events are scheduled through the summer and fall in cities in the U.S. and Canada.

The sessions are open to technicians of CFESA member companies with a familiarity in electric, gas and steam theory who have at least six months, but less than three years experience in the foodservice industry. The five day program allows 40 technicians to participate in training focusing on basic gas, steam and electric theory.

As for the usefulness of the training, CFESA cites Tom Eichenauer, president of Eichenauer Services, who sent two technicians to the North Carolina training session. "We are very satisfied with the training our two technicians got in Charlotte," Eichenauer said. "They gained valuable classroom training they could not duplicate for the same cost here at ESI."

The first session in Tampa was taught by representatives of Bakers Pride, Frymaster, Garland Group, Groen and Rational. The North Carolina sessions were taught by representatives of PMI (Vulcan Hart), Wells Manufacturing, Groen, Garland Group and The Blodgett Oven Company. It was hosted at the Advanced Cooking Technology Center, a facility of Duke Power Company. Future training sessions are tentatively scheduled for Indianapolis during June; Tampa, FL, in November; and Los Angeles in January 2000.

CFESA is an organization of independent food service equipment agents and parts distributors with more than 300 members throughout the United States, Canada, Australia and Puerto Rico. CFESA offers a rigorous certification program and a training program for technicians and provides their members with instant access to a National Parts Network.

For more information on attending or participating in an upcoming training session, contact CFESA headquarters at 317-844-4700.