Toshiba Air Conditioning’s new national network of training centres has been shortlisted for CIBSE’s highest training accolade, as part of the Institute’s Building Performance Awards 2015.

The network comprises 12 fully equipped centres, the length and breadth of the UK, plus the Republic of Ireland. The new facilities are located at Portsmouth, Bristol, Leatherhead, Welwyn Garden City, Harpenden, West Bromwich, Manchester, Sunderland, Warrington, Leeds, Glasgow and at Bray in the Republic of Ireland.

Toshiba has set up its own training centres and has worked closely with distributors to ensure each facility is equipped with working examples of all the main types of air conditioning in use, including splits, heat pumps, ducted systems and the latest heat recovery VRF systems.

Some centres also have working examples of Toshiba’s refrigerant leak protection and management system, which can detect and isolate leaks, and initiate automatic shut-off and pump down of systems, providing complete protection and assurance for end users.

General manager of Toshiba Air Conditioning, David Dunn (pictured), said: “The centres provide a comprehensive range of both theoretical and hands-on courses aimed at engineers, consultants and end users. We are delighted that the initiative has received such high profile recognition from CIBSE.'

In addition to practical, hands-on courses, they also offer detailed CIBSE-endorsed CPD courses on technical and environmental topics.

The project to roll-out the network of training centres in the space of just a year has involved significant investment on the part of Toshiba Carrier UK Limited and its distributors, in terms of equipment, space, installation, training of trainers – and related marketing and admin support.

However, David Dunn says: “Training is a priority for Toshiba Air Conditioning as we see it as our responsibility to ensure new industry entrants, and well as existing engineers, have the skills to carry out first class installations, which safeguard the environment and deliver high efficiency and reliable systems for end users.”

The new centres have capacity to train around 2,000 engineers each year, making Toshiba one of the most significant providers of specialist air conditioning training in the UK.

The winners of the CIBSE Building Performance Awards will be announced at an event in London on 10 February 2015.