May 7, 2020
In the almost two months since Community Housing Partners (CHP) physically closed its offices in response to COVID-19, staff members from across CHP’s departments have found new and creative ways to carry out the organization’s mission. The Energy Solutions Research and Training Center, which has provided training for energy efficiency professionals since 1999, is a great example of this.
Since early March, the Training Center has not taught in-person classes in order to protect its staff and students. The team has had to look at other ways to provide trainings in science-based, energy efficiency measures.
The Training Center offers approximately 12 online courses and has been live streaming from each trainer’s home for instruction and testing. Trainers are still able to utilize the Training Center because social distancing and sanitation measures have been put in place to keep everyone safe.
“The staff have been awesome in effectively re-structuring their personal environments into mini-live streaming classrooms,” said Phil Hull, Training Center Director. “All of the trainers have been instrumental in looking for new ways to teach portions of all the needed classes online. Each of the trainers are taking turns teaching a free Building Science webinar as well.”
The Training Center had online classes and live stream sessions before the emergence of COVID-19. Staff members have streamed trainings live from the Training Center to places like Minnesota for conferences and had even created multiple weeks of training content to a group in Argentina. With this experience, the team was able to quickly adapt to the new environment of solely online education.
“I am super proud of how fast my team was able to adapt to the needs of our network,” said Hull. “They have been able to come up with new ideas to keep student certifications on track and effectively deliver training in an uncertain time. They have been awesome!”