What online training cannot give you.

Every Solar Canada course currently runs online. In-person classes are arranged by region once enough people in one place want the same dates. That is the real position, and the rest of this page is what it means for you rather than a way of making it sound better.

What you can learn properly through a screen

• All of the design content. String sizing, temperature correction, conductor selection, inverter matching. This is arithmetic and code, and a screen is a perfectly good place for it. It is also where the examination's marks are.
• The theory of installation. Why a penetration is flashed a particular way, what sequence a commissioning test follows, what each measurement tells you.
• Code and regulatory content. Reading requirements, the filing path, net metering.
• Safety knowledge. The hazards, why DC behaves differently, what the procedures are.

What you cannot

• Torquing a clamp to feel. You can be told the figure. Knowing when something is wrong without checking takes repetition.
• Moving on a sloped roof in harness. There is no substitute, and it is the part that decides whether somebody is useful on their first day.
• Terminating neatly, fast, in cold weather, with gloves on.
• Fault-finding by hand. You can learn the method online. Doing it on a live roof with a crew waiting is a different skill.

So who should buy an online course

Somebody whose goal is the credential and the knowledge, who will get the practical competence on a crew — which is how almost everyone in this industry actually learned it. The credential gets you the interview; the first season gets you the hands.

And who should not

If what you need is a practical ticket for a specific site requirement, or you have been told to turn up able to work rather than able to explain, an online course is the wrong purchase. Say so when you enquire and we will tell you honestly whether we can help, including when the answer is no.

What we do about it

In-person classes by region, on request. We keep a list by location, and when enough people in one area want the same dates we run it. Tell us where you are on the enquiry form and you go on that list — no obligation and no deposit.

Safety training that is practical where it has to be. Where a practical component is required — fall protection in particular — it is arranged through an approved provider rather than claimed as something we deliver through a screen. Safety training →

Why we put this on the site

Because somebody who buys forty hours of video expecting a workshop is going to be disappointed, leave a bad review, and be right. We would rather lose that sale on this page than win it and deserve the review.

Common questions