Are you enthusiastic about technology, technically skilled and able to work under pressure, are you interested in mathematics and physics, do you enjoy working independently, alone and in a team, are you well organised and have good manners?
Your job
Shops, butcheries, bakeries, or restaurants cannot function without refrigeration systems. Cooling systems are also essential for ice rinks, food or chemical industries, hospitals, research laboratories, and data centers. In residential and commercial buildings, air conditioning systems provide a comfortable climate.
- You plan, calculate, and oversee the installation of refrigeration systems.
- You ensure well-cooled storage rooms, comfortably air-conditioned apartments, offices, shops, restaurants, hospitals, or functional cooling in industrial facilities, research institutions, or ice rinks using cooling and air conditioning systems, as well as heat pumps.
- You determine the requirements for the system to be designed. Together with architects, engineers, and the client, you design a cooling system that meets customer needs and takes structural conditions into account.
- You ensure compliance with legal regulations, such as air quality control, water protection, or waste separation.
- You calculate the size and cost of the cooling system during the planning phase, including cooling and heating requirements, insulation thickness, various components, and piping.
- You create cooling and electrical schematics, project, execution, and detail plans, as well as material lists using a computer (CAD) for manufacturing and installation.
- You often work in workshops or on construction sites, where you discuss execution details with installation personnel, architects, or clients.
Your training
Duration:
4 years
Focus Areas
- Commercial refrigeration systems
- Industrial refrigeration systems
- Heat pump systems
- Climate-refrigeration systems
Training in Professional Practice
- In a refrigeration technology company or an engineering office for refrigeration/building technology
- 2- to 3-month internship in a warehouse, workshop, and/or construction site
Academic Education
1 day per week at the vocational school
Professional Subjects
Planning of refrigeration systems; ensuring work safety, health protection, environmental protection, value preservation, and maintenance
Inter-company Courses
Practical learning and practicing of professional fundamentals
Vocational Baccalaureate
Students with excellent academic performance may attend the vocational baccalaureate school during the basic training period.
Qualification
Federal Certificate of Proficiency "Refrigeration System Planner EFZ"
Your future
Refrigeration jobs are jobs of the future. Specialists are rare and the refrigeration market is growing. Every year, around 100 refrigeration specialists complete their vocational training in Switzerland. Refrigeration specialists have exceptionally good career prospects. Refrigeration system planners are in high demand on the labour market and earn good salaries. It is not uncommon for young, committed specialists to take on project and personnel responsibility in companies and quickly make a career within the company. Technology in the refrigeration industry is constantly evolving. A wide range of training programmes help to keep up to date with the latest technical developments and to acquire other useful skills, whether in project management, engineering or operations management, at higher technical colleges, universities of applied sciences or at university.
Promotion opportunities & further training
The refrigeration system fitter can develop into an installation or service manager. The refrigeration system planner can develop into a project manager.
Additional apprenticeship as a refrigeration system fitter or refrigeration system planner (2 years), chief fitter (part-time, 2 years), technical school (part-time, 3 ½ years), engineering school (3 years).
I decided to train as an EFZ refrigeration system planner because I have always been fascinated by technology. The opportunity to plan complex technical systems and apply both logical thinking and physical principles makes this profession unique for me.
Kylian Mosimann
In training as a refrigeration system planner EFZ
In training as a refrigeration system planner EFZ
