Newest Regional Training Center Opened

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1 IN HOME SERVICE PROFESSIONAL UPDATE Volume 1 Issue 2 Winter/Spring Whirlpool Corporation WHIRLPOOL CONTINUES TO ADDRESS THE CRITICAL SHORTAGE OF IN-HOME SERVICE PROFESSIONALS (TECHNICIANS) IN THE MAJOR APPLIANCE INDUSTRY Inside this issue: ATI Joins Partnership with Whirlpool Phil Paulat joins BPTO Skills USA Update 3 Servicematters.com 3 ihsp-jobs.com 3 Lake Michigan Student places in Skills Competition 2006 RTC Training Schedule Whirlpool Corp. leads the way once again! Whirlpool Corporation recognizes the critical shortage of In-Home Service Professionals. Over the past couple years they have led the way addressing this by developing six Regional Training Centers around the entire Country. We provide 4 weeks of in depth training on each product category, Refrigeration, Laundry and Kitchen Products. Here a Service Professional can enhance their skills with hands on training. We also are creating an awareness of the opportunities in our industry by visiting career guidance counselors at both the high school level and the vocational education level. We have two Mangers of Business and Employee Development dedicated to Industry Recruitment and our Regional Training Centers. Whirlpool is trying to raise the image of Appliance Repairer and Technician to that of In-Home Service Professional. (IHSP) Our Six Regional Training Center Partners are using the Whirlpool courses as a vehicle to recruit more students for their own programs, ie: installers and those desiring a career change. Vocational Schools without Major Appliance Programs are getting knowledge and tools they need from Whirlpool to start their own M.A.T. Programs. We are seeing an increase in programs offered across the Country because of these efforts! Special points of interest: Critical Shortage of In-Home Service Professionals (IHSP) Whirlpool Partners with 6 Regional Training Centers RTC Schedule Newest Regional Training Center Opened Whirlpool Corp. announces opening of it s newest Regional Training Center in Valencia, CA. Appliance Technical Institute (ATI) was chosen recently to be the sixth training center that Whirlpool has partnered with. We continue to have each geographical area of the country covered so that everyone will be within a reasonable distance to attend one of our in depth hands on training sessions. Appliance Technical Institute is opening a full time Major Appliance Technology program with open enrollment. This program gives Students and Adults an opportunity to train for a new career and or be retrained if they have been laid off from their current job. A.T.I expects a 100% job placement for those who complete the course, according to Manager Arthur Ashkinazi.

2 Page 2 IN HOME SERVICE Whirlpool s Regional Training Centers 1. Madison Park Technical Vocational High School / Boston, MA 2. Dunwoody College of Technology / Minneapolis, MN 3. Robert Morgan Educational Ctr. / Miami, FL 4. Tulsa Technology Ctr. / Tulsa, OK 5. Los Medanos College / Pittsburg, CA 6. Appliance Technical Institute / Valencia, CA Madison Park Technical Vocational High School Regional Training Centers Agenda The agenda at each of our RTC s consists of four, one week long courses. Refrigeration which includes Basic Refrigeration Diagnostics. Kitchen which includes all Cooking products and Dishwashers Laundry which includes Washers & Dryers Due to popularity, the Refrigeration program repeats itself during the fourth week to give more students an opportunity to attend. Classes run 8:30 a.m. thru 5:00 p.m. Tuesday thru Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Friday. These classes cover Whirlpool and KitchenAid products in depth with both The cost of the class includes the Training, Hotel, Breakfast, Lunch and Transportation to and from the Hotel and RTC. As you can see it is quite a value for the cost. class presentation and Hands on. Class size is limited to 12 students and there are 2 instructors to insure a good learning environment. The cost of the class includes the Training, Hotel, Breakfast, Lunch and Transportation to and from the Hotel and RTC. As you can see it is quite a value for the cost. For more information and a registration form, go to and click on Educational Solutions Phil Paulat joins Brand Portfolio Training Organization (BPTO) Whirlpool added Phil Paulat to the Training organization earlier this year. Phil most recently was the Instructor of Major Appliance Technology at Lake Michigan College (LMC) in Benton Harbor, MI. A lot of you will recognize Phil as the actor in the Customer Relations videos Good Tech / Bad Tech and various other training videos. Plans are to have Phil assist our Field Ser- vice Representatives (FSR s) along with Bob Davie and Greg Doster at our Regional Training Facilities as one of the instructors from time to time. Phil has also been very instrumental in getting one of our newest on-line training tools implemented, Brand Academy. Here students that attend one of our Regional Training Centers are able to take the following pre-requisite courses: BRAND ACADEMY COURSES IHSP BASIC ELECTRICTY I IHSP BASIC ELECTRICTY II IHSP METER USAGE I IHSP BASIC REFRIGERATION I IHSP BASIC LAUNDRY I IHSP BASIC KITCHEN PRODUCTS

3 Volume 1 Issue 2 Page 3 The accolades keep pouring in for Whirlpool s industry leading web site Servicematters.com. This useful site is available to all service companies whether they are authorized or not. Here a Service Company can find all of the latest service information including but not limited to, Job Aids, Wiring Diagrams, Multimedia presentations, links to our Field Force and also a link to our six Regional Training Centers. Recent additions to this site include IHSP News, Parts Support and a Rapid Resolution link. Service Matters is available in English and Spanish The Spanish version can be accessed by clicking on the link at the bottom of the English version. Check out : Let us know what you think! Whirlpool Corporation recognizing the need for Employers and employees to find each other and has developed a web site where employees may post their resumes and employers may post job openings. Dan J. an IHSP from Sacramento writes: I service most all brands, but there s only one I recommend. Whirlpool strives to keep customers, with confidence. Thanks for this site. In-Home Service Professionals and Appliance Companies now have a way to find each other. We hear everyday how companies are looking to hire more IHSP s. More and more success stories are coming in as IHSP s and Service Companies are finding one another. Let us know if you have a success story from the ihsp-jobs web site.. WHIRLPOOL SUPPORTS SKILLS USA NATIONAL COMPETITION Each Year Skills USA conducts a national competition in Kansas City, Missouri during the Month of June. The Major Appliance Technology (MAT) division includes representatives from allover the United States. There are two divisions. There is a High School division and an Adults division. Winners are chosen in each division. Each year Whirlpool participates by furnishing judges for the National competition. Field Service Representatives selected from around the Country take turns representing Whirlpool Corporation as judges for the Skills competition. The two Managers of Business and Employee Development for Whirlpool also attend with their Department Manager Mike Hall. Whirlpool Corporation also supports Skills by having a recruiting booth each year and providing some of the awards to the winners of the competition. This competition is widely attended by competitors in dozens of Vo-Tech categories Skills USA National Competition Award Winners (in Red) (Also pictured are Members and Co-Chairs from the Competition Committee)

4 Volume 1 Issue 2 Page 4 LMC Student Places in National Competition There was an article that was recently posted in the Lake Michigan College Newspaper. It read as follows.. Randy Kerns of St. Joseph recently brought home second place honors in the SkillsUSA Championship competition in the Major Appliance Technology category. Kerns, a recent graduate of the Home Appliance Technologies program at LMC is the first LMC student to participate in this national competition. SkillsUSA is the national organization for students in trade, industrial, technical and health occupation education. It sponsors the SkillsUSA Championship annually to recognize student excellence in career and technical education. The competition held in Kansas City, MO brought 4,600 of the top career and technical education students from across the country to participate in hands-on competition in eight trade, technical, and leadership fields. The Major Appliance Technology contestants soft skills were tested by interaction with judges who played the part of a customer with a problem. The competitors then had to troubleshoot the problem with the appliance and explain to the judges what the problem was, trace the problem out on a schematic, and explain what the repair would be. They also completed a brazing segment representing a small refrigeration system and completed a written test. The Home Appliance Technologies program at LMC was started in co-operation with Whirlpool Corporation in 2004 to respond to the growing need demand for highly trained Appliance Service technicians (IHSP s). The 9 month certificate program is entering it s third year this fall with the start of classes August 29th. Classes are held in a special test kitchen located at LMC s M-Tec facility on Klock Road in Benton Harbor where students work with a variety of home appliances to gain the hands-on knowledge to provide quality service in the field. Whirlpool Corporation is a member of the Technical Committee that oversees the SkillsUSA Major Appliance Technology competition. Greg Doster, Manager of Business and Employee Development, Eastern Region was recently elected as Co-Chairman of SkillsUSA Technical Committee. Mike Hall, Manager of Technical Training and Development at Whirlpool is also instrumental in supporting the SkillsUSA Program and the Home Appliance Technologies Program at LMC. Those interested in learning more about this program or enrolling this fall should contact Jim Shelton at Ext> 3031 or Phil Paulat, Home Appliance Technologies Instructor at Ext Randy did a great job representing Lake Michigan College with his talent and professionalism stated Phil Paulat. We are proud to have high caliber students like Randy in our Home Appliance Technologies program who, when they graduate, are able to enter the workforce and fill the growing demand for well trained In-Home Service Professionals. Kerns, who graduated with 17 other program participants in July, has accepted a position with Diamond Factory Service in Benton Harbor. He joins seven other classmates who have already received job offers in their chosen career field. In The News.. Whirlpool recently added an Advanced Refrigeration Course at Appliance Technical Institute in Valencia, CA. There has been considerable requests for an advanced course. According to Mike Hall, Technical Training Manager for Whirlpool Corporation, Whirlpool will pilot the advanced course in Southern California and will expand it to the rest of the Regional Training Centers as the demand dictates. Greg Doster and Bob Davie, Managers of Business and Employee Development for the Eastern and Western Regions recently completed teaching the first Advanced Refrigeration Course at A.T.I in Southern California. The next Advanced Refrigeration Course will be held November 14, 2006 thru November 17, It will be a pre-requisite to attend the Basic Refrigeration Course prior to enrolling in the Advanced class.

5 Whirlpool Corporation Regional Training Centers Robert Morgan Educational Center Attn: Leroy Douglas S.W. 122nd Ave. Miami, FL Phone: Everyone...Passionately Creating Loyal Customers for Life Whirlpool Corporation realizes the need to increase the number of In-Home Service Professionals and to continue to train those who are in our industry. The Future is NOW and by making career guidance counselors aware of the opportunities available in the Major Appliance Industry and with Whirlpool s commitment to properly train and update In-Home Service Professionals, we can all make a difference. BECAUSE ONLY TOGETHER CAN WE HELP OUR CUSTOMERS RECEIVE THE SERVICE THEY EXPECT AND DESERVE! (TOGETHER, WE CAN DO IT!) We re on the Web! For more information about our Regional Training Centers or In Home Service Professional materials, you may contact us at our National Regional Training Office listed on this page Regional Training Schedule