A-1 Refrigeration Testimonial

“A-1 Refrigeration is incredibly grateful to the Michigan Works! Southwest Business Solutions team for assisting with securing funding for our apprenticeship training program. While we do have affiliates for the structure and formalization of our program, we are completely self-funded. This expense is sometimes a burden, but we believe so strongly in homegrown talent that we are willing to absorb the expense to guarantee our future workforce.

Our program and culture are so well represented in the community that we have some apprentices who took a pay cut and joined our team to secure their future. Our instructors are seasoned professionals who work for us during the day and make time to teach after hours in the classroom. They also take that teaching into the field for hands on learning while working side by side with our apprentices. In many cases our apprentices are not “billable” so, while our team benefits from their presence from time to time, our margins are affected, and this funding is helping to offset those costs. I cannot stress enough how important this kind of funding is to not only our training program, but to our ability to offer more openings in our program.

I appreciate the work that the Michigan Works! Southwest team has done in bringing this opportunity to us and we look forward to sharing testimonials and additional feedback on the effects of this funding on our apprenticeship training program. I hope A-1 Refrigeration and Michigan Works! Southwest can develop a long-term partnership as we advocate for opportunities to build and strengthen our workforce. We sincerely appreciate their assistance and continued consideration for grant programs.”

-Shawn G. Austin, Chief Operating Officer, A-1 Refrigeration