Fortis College Reviews of Certificates in HVAC

"The hvac program is a joke spent 20 grand just to get a book just to read in school everyday you could do that on your own did a total of 15 labs for a year of school, no hands on experience like they promised, don’t buy there tools either they jack up the price 300 to 400 bucks just buy some at Home Depot"

"Fortis college was a great decision for me as far as continuing my education!! I chose HVAC as my career of study and I had a great learning experience..My instructors gave me the knowledge needed for me to excel in the real world. Hands on learning in the lab gave me real life experiences I would encounter in the real world. The staff here at Fortis college were very helpful with solving any problems I may have had, and with answering questions I may have had in a promptly matter. My Career service administrator help revise my resume and prepared me for future interviews with employers which is very beneficial to me. I really enjoyed my experience here and encourage others who are looking to forward their education to come to Fortis college"

"I have enjoyed the program this far. I think its a good program. Only suggestion is we need more bathrooms. The school has a lot of space so this should be an easy fix. I have attended for 7 months and I'm excited for graduation. Thank you Fortis for being a good school."

"Class size very small, incoming students mix with already students and may take an advance class before a basics class, making learning hard if not taken in order. After graduation, we never had our promised graduation ceremony it's been over a year already."

"The FORTIS Norfolk HVAC/R Instructor cadre is a multi-talented lot of refrigeration technicians. During my time as a student there, the youngest instructor had just 5+ years of commercial oriented refrigeration under his belt, yet he was still working in the actual field while instructing the night class. The entire group brought a wealth of personal experience into the classroom and made the lesson learning as pleasant as it can get when it comes to learning about refrigeration. The lab facility for actual hands-on learning consists of your standard residential heating and cooling units that most beginning HVAC/R technicians will come across in the field. The instructors enjoy inserting problems into the equipment that the students must troubleshoot and fix to get the system operational. The instructors will act as the customers during the scenarios but will interject if there shows a possibility of unsafe actions by the student that could cause actual major damage to the student or the equipment. Along with the standard troubleshooting/maintenance training, there may arise an opportunity that a project comes in for students to work on. Our class had the opportunity to rebuild a Manitowak commercial grade ice maker that had been thrown into a field for scrap. The class had to clean up the parts, install a new compressor, leak test and evacuate the system, wire the system back up, plumb the intake and discharge water lines and descale the actual ice making component. After all was said and done, we took a $5,000 system that had been thrown out for scrap and made it operational again. That is something that you might be hard pressed to find in other school labs for learning. As for the students who wish to come to FORTIS Norfolk HVAC/R to learn about the refrigeration industry, I would encourage you to come. That being said, I will now discourage anyone who wears a cloak of entitlement from coming to this facility. You are a student for most of a year and you are there to learn. If an actual project becomes available for you to work on, do NOT be that person who says, Are we getting paid for this? who actually feels like you need to be paid. You are there for experience that will more than pay for itself, as you are learning on actual equipment that others don't know how to fix, but you will. Bring the mindset of learning, leave the mindset of "me, myself, and I". I consider myself blessed to have been able to have the classmates that I started up with and the opportunity to learn under the experience of the FORTIS HVAC/R cadre. I will not lie about the frustration of traveling there four nights a week back and forth from the Yorktown area through the tunnels. That was the worst part about my year of training, being stuck in sometimes 90+ minute traffic jams. That was offset with the knowledge that I was given a great opportunity to learn from folks with actual experience from the field in different areas. Listening to other students that have attended other local HVAC/R classes in the area, they were nowhere near the level of hands-on learning that FORTIS provides. The other staff members at FORTIS also go the extra mile to ensure that you are getting the full benefit of college, from the registrar to the job placement office. I also know how to go into my own systems at my house and work on them should the need arise. I even have done my own refrigerator maintenance; just dont tell my landlord, for I havent. That being said, it means that I knew enough to work on the system and work on maintenance without breaking it."

"Poor use of resources as far as teaching goes the instructors are superb gentleman but are horrible teachers and do not take their job seriously as far as the institution as a whole it is not treated fairly the night classes do not receive the same attention as the day classes and the library is not available for night students."

"Fortis College was a great experience it taught me a lot about HVAC/R that I didn't know. The instructor were great. We received a new director right before I graduated and he name was George Fordyce and he made the whole department much better. The instructors will help you in anyway to receive the grades that you deserve. The school helped me to get a good job with a good company. I very highly recommend Fortis College to anyone that would like to receive a HVAC/R certificate."

"This school has a high turn over not just students. In 4-5 months all the HVAC teachers are gone. The ones they hire aren't teaching there reading from the book with no explanation."

"It's 2013 and I am still looking for a job in HVACR. Employers are not hiring me, I've applied myself daily since 2011, Fortis has even stopped helping me look for a job. Don't go for the HCACR program, employers don't want a diploma they want a degree."