The purpose of this program is to prepare students for employment or advanced training in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning/refrigeration (HVAC/R) industry. The student should obtain EPA certification prior to leaving school in order to be employed in any job that requires work with refrigerants. This program focuses on broad, transferable skills, stresses the understanding of the heating, air-conditioning, refrigeration, and ventilation industry, and demonstrates elements of the industry such as planning, management, finance, technical and production skills, the underlying principles of technology, and health, safety and environmental issues. This program offers a sequence of courses that provides coherent and rigorous content aligned with challenging academic standards and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in the Architecture and Construction career cluster; provides technical skill proficiency, and includes competency-based applied learning that contributes to the academic knowledge, higher-order reasoning and problem-solving skills, work attitudes, general employability skills, technical skills, and occupation-specific skills, and knowledge of all aspects of the Architecture and Construction career cluster. The content includes but is not limited to designing, testing, and repairing heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning/refrigeration (HVAC/R) systems.