When you enter the showroom at Penrith Solar Centre, there’s a buzz in the building. Sales consultants are smiling, greeting newcomers, and helping them find solar solutions. But that’s just the showroom.
The rest of the business works behind one of three doors you can see from the showroom: to the left is our warehouse, straight through to the back takes you to our offices, and to the right is a staircase that leads to our training centre.
That’s where we’re heading in this article; up the stairs to see a bit of the training centre.
Our training centre is specifically designed to help the apprentices we hire learn about electricity and the industry. This prepares them for what they’ll be working on professionally for years to come.
Other solar companies don’t have facilities like this.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about Penrith Solar Centre difference, you might want to check out the following article titled, In-house Installers vs. Subcontractors: Which is Better?
Identifying the Need for a Training Centre
We got the key to our mega solar facility in 2021. It wasn’t difficult to figure out what to do with our warehouse, or the space up the back staircase that was clearly for offices.
Above the showroom, however, there was a big empty room with a concrete slab for a floor. It was dirty and dusty. Maybe it could be a storage space?
The training centre started off as a space to teach our apprentices how to walk on roofs. Jake Warner, our founder and director, had an idea to build not one, but two roofs inside that area. Why on earth did he think that was a good idea? Well, we have a lot of staff walking on roofs.
Many of the apprentices who come to work for us have no idea what to do during the first few weeks. They arrive and often don’t know how to walk on a roof because they have never been on one before. They didn’t know where to stand.
It’s a real issue in the solar industry. There are different types of roofs. If you don’t know how to walk on tin or tile and you have an accident, you’ll either damage a person or some property.
At the time Jake had his brainstorming session, Penrith Solar Centre employed two team members who used to be roofers. And they built two rooftops upstairs in that storage space: one tin and the other tile. The roof faces have the railings of the mounting system already installed on them as well. The only thing missing is the panels.
The team brainstormed with Jake about the practicalities of building up the training centre. They sat down, talked about it, and the training centre started to take shape. They were building the guts of a house inside a factory, discussing what it would look like and how to wire it up.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about the importance of your roof type and how it affects your solar installation, you might want to check out the following article titled, How Does Your Roof Affect Your Installation?
Apprentice Retention Problems Solved
Before the training centre, many apprentices had no idea how to do anything other than putting panels on the roof. While that’s what we do, there aren’t a lot of opportunities for further development. This wasn’t great for their apprenticeship or their future careers.
Apprentices would leave because all they ever did was the solar side of things. We would hear, “I need to get more electrical experience elsewhere.”
And that’s a good and healthy thing. You always respect that because they’re thinking about their career. But the grass isn’t greener on the other side in other industries; it’s greener where you water it. So, of course, we go the hose out.
When we started the training program, we saw a significant improvement in our retention rate for apprentices. We realised we needed to go beyond just training the new apprentices.
We focused on teaching them the basics at a slow pace, such as how to work with J-boxes and isolators. This helped us determine how quickly they would pick things up and whether they would be an issue for a tradesman.
We also put them through external working-at-heights training and emphasized the importance of safety, like wearing a rope on the roof. We showed them how to handle panels and other basic tasks that are better learned on-site.
If you’d like to learn more about how we support our apprentices, you might want to check out the following article titled, First Year Electrical Apprentices Soar at Penrith Solar Centre with Apprenticeship Australia.
Our Relentless Pursuit of Perfection
While we do have a head of training (his name is Rob and he’s amazing), on the truck, the crew leaders are responsible for the apprentices’ growth while they’re with them for three months or so. They handle the day-to-day training. Rob checks in with the crew leaders to see how the apprentices are doing.
We have high standards at Penrith Solar Centre. We’re very strict about what a finished installation looks like.
Rob watches the apprentices and gives them certain tasks to see how well they can do them. Sometimes they know he’s watching, sometimes they don’t.
For example, when they’re doing junction boxes, he gives them simple instructions with little detail to see how well they can pick it up and think for themselves. If someone needs more help and guidance, he goes back and looks at it again. He’s blunt and he expects their best efforts.
If the product isn’t perfect, it can cause serious harm to customers or themselves. Because of that, he’s strict on the basics.
He’ll give them a rope. Most people, tradesmen or not, know a way to wrap a rope neatly. Rob starts the lesson by saying, “I want to show you a certain way to do this rope, and I want you to copy me and see if you can do it.”
It shows how well they listen, which indicates if they will in the first couple of weeks. It’s a simple task that seems dumb and straightforward. Kind of like making your bed. When you show someone a simple task that they think they already know how to do, they might ignore you. But you can see very quickly who excels.
In the first couple of weeks, the tradesmen will come up to me and say, “This guy’s amazing, I want him on my truck every time.” They are the ones who listened and watched.
Little things like that throughout the training are evaluations, and Jake constantly asks how the new guys are doing.
Every one of our crew leaders is also very good at teaching. It’s part of the position.
The crew leaders usually have a plan for their team and know how to best execute it. We’re very lucky because most of our crew leaders take responsibility for training the apprentices. They genuinely care about their growth.
They love being on the roof or doing hands-on tasks with the apprentices because they can work alongside them. This allows them to see what they need help with and what they can handle on their own. They create a plan to address those needs together.
In many other trades or electrical companies, the person running the site might have a first-year apprentice sweeping floors instead of learning valuable skills.
Here, it’s different. Whether you’re a first-year or second-year apprentice, you’ll get the chance to learn by doing. The crew leaders will watch and help you. This attitude is unique to our company and the culture Jake created.
For example, yesterday, Rob was on-site with the orange and black trucks. The apprentice working on the board was not the head electrician, but the head electrician was there to monitor and ensure the job was done correctly.
The head electrician handled more routine tasks and checked in with the apprentice. It would have been faster for the electrician to do the job himself, avoiding mistakes and finishing early. They could have been back to the warehouse and on their way with an early finish.
Despite the extra time, the head electrician chose to let the apprentice learn and gain experience. We focus on teaching and growth, even if it takes a bit longer.
If you’re interested in hearing what our customers are saying about our apprentices and installers, you might want to check out the following article titled, “I’ve never had a more positive experience with tradespeople.” – How Tabitha Saved with Penrith Solar Centre.
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Working with TAFE and the Benefits of the Training Centre
The best thing about the training centre, and something we like to brag about, is how it complements TAFE. Recently, TAFE has recognized a problem in the solar industry: apprentices aren’t learning enough electrical work, especially in the DC world.
For context: most solar systems have DC architecture, and most homes run on AC architecture. There’s a piece of equipment called an inverter (or microinverter) that transforms the direct current (DC) electricity to alternating current electricity (AC).
TAFE stopped (or is very closely monitoring) apprentices that are trying to do the electrical apprenticeship and spending their entire time working for an electrical subcontractor who installs solar permanently or full-time. These apprentices are not gaining any electrical experience; they’re being treated like roofers and just doing panel install after panel install.
At Penrith Solar Centre, we are recognised by TAFE and Apprenticeship Support NSW or Apprenticeship Support Australia for our training facility, and it’s highlighted and even shown off to other employers as an example of how to treat electrical apprentices in the solar industry.
We’ve become the benchmark for employers of electrical apprentices, and we believe that this is why we’re growing such high-quality tradesmen. It’s not only because of our on-site experience but also because we share the work around with these apprentices.
Our apprentices are doing switchboards and normal wiring you’d see in a house or commercial site. But most solar installers don’t do that because most installers don’t have a training centre.
The problem TAFE was facing was that many solar companies hired apprentices because they were cheap labour. These apprentices can potentially go through four years without learning much about AC electrical work.
They somehow stumble through TAFE, get an electrical license, and then they’re able to do anything with that license. They can start their own business, or do commercial, domestic, or industrial work. But they often don’t know much because they’ve only done labour-intensive tasks.
TAFE has started kicking people out if they find out the company primarily does solar. They don’t let those companies take in apprentices. If they’re treating apprentices like labourers.
But because we have the training centre and all the videos and content we’ve created, we showed TAFE our portfolio and said, “This is what we do. We actually do more than what you think most companies do.” If fact, we had someone from TAFE come inspect the training facility. His name was Ben, and he was blown away.
We give them whatever they need for their apprenticeship. Jake and the company support this fully. We have old motors, old fans, and old switchboards to blow up (just kidding, really) and other supplies to test and practice with. The apprentices have different tasks to complete for course credit during their apprenticeship. They give us their tasks, and we go up into the training centre and do them. They’re not solar-related.
It’s one thing to learn from a book, but you become a tradesperson by working with your hands. These apprentices need hands-on experience. They need to see and physically do the work to remember it.
Our apprentices aren’t getting kicked out of TAFE. In fact, not only are they not getting kicked out, but Penrith Solar Centre is known by Mount Druitt TAFE to have the highest achieving apprentices academically. This is because we have incredible humans but also because of the hands-on training facility that we have at Penrith Solar.
We saw a need and built a testing board in the facility. Apprentices can go up there to train and practice.
Having the testing board means apprentices can make mistakes and learn without the pressure of immediate failure. They can experiment and understand what works and what doesn’t.
This hands-on, trial-and-error approach is crucial for learning. It’s something not many companies offer, but it’s a huge advantage for our apprentices.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about what our apprentices experience, you might want to check out the following article titled, What to Expect on the Day of Your Solar Installation.
Apprentices Make Their Spark at PSC
Now you know a little about the hand-up Penrith Solar Centre offers our electrical apprentices. Our training centre is a place for them to learn about AC electricity while installing solar systems, and our leadership team is full of educators.
At Penrith Solar Centre, we nurture talent and provide opportunities for their success. Taking care of our people is what we do.
If you’re interested in learning a bit more about value points in our pricing that include the solar rebate, you might want to check out the following article titled, Solar Panel Pricing and Value Points at Penrith Solar Centre.
