WHY WE BUILT THIS
We built it because
nobody else would.
Tru Tradesman’s Institute is led by two working HVAC instructors with 33+ years of combined trade experience and active industry licensure. Built to deliver real training, real certifications, and real field readiness — for the people serious about learning this trade. Other schools kind of fall short. Tru Tradesman’s is where things get done right.
THE STORY
From the workshop to the classroom.
We’re two HVAC instructors. Together we’ve put in over 33 years in this trade. Dyron Gavin brings 25 years of HVAC field experience, U.S. military service, EPA 608 certification, OSHA 30 certification, and PLC instructor credentials. Ramón Montero is a Florida-licensed HVAC contractor — license CAC1819148, active since July 2017 — with deep residential and commercial field expertise and the regulatory side of the trade most online programs ignore entirely.
The trade has been our life. Service trucks. Mechanical rooms. Rooftops. Mini-splits installed in attics where you can’t stand up straight. Compressor diagnostics at 2 AM with a homeowner watching over your shoulder. The licensed and code-compliant work that makes real HVAC permittable, inspectable, and insurable.
And we’ve watched what happens when working-class people try to break into this trade. Trade schools charging $20,000 and taking 18 months. YouTube full of great information with no structure or accountability. Online HVAC courses that are slide decks and quizzes — no field readiness, no certification that matters, no community to ask questions when you’re stuck. The certifications that actually get you hired — EPA 608, OSHA 30 — get treated as afterthoughts instead of the core deliverable.
What we saw wasn’t being done right. So we built Tru Tradesman’s Institute.
This is the place to learn HVAC right. Real curriculum from working HVAC professionals. Three industry-recognized certifications included — OSHA 10 access, EPA 608 exam access, and required textbook — taught under instructors who hold higher OSHA 30 credentials and active state contractor licensing themselves. Real lab challenges where you photograph and video your work for review. A community of practicing techs you can ask questions when you’re stuck on a job at 2 PM. Self-paced, online, on your schedule.
We built this for the men and women who are tired of being broke, who have the passion to learn the trade, and the ambition to actually work. The ones who’ll show up at 7 AM on a service call and figure it out. The ones truly looking to make a real living for themselves.
Tru Tradesman’s is where things get done right.
That’s the whole pitch. The rest of this page is us showing our work.
— Dyron Gavin & Ramón Montero
HVAC Instructors · Tru Tradesman’s Institute
HOW WE OPERATE
What we believe.
Working-class people deserve direct training, not academic theater.
We don't lecture for the sake of lecturing. Every lesson teaches something a working tech needs to know. If we can't connect a topic to a job site, we cut it.
Real certifications matter more than impressive logos.
OSHA 10 access. OSHA-10. NCCER. ServSafe. These are the credentials that get you on a service truck or in a kitchen. We focus on the certs that pay rent — not on internal "certificates of completion" that look good on a wall and do nothing for a paycheck.
Community is the part nobody else gives you.
You can buy a course anywhere. You cannot buy a network of working techs willing to answer your questions at 2 PM when a job has gone sideways. We built that. It's the most valuable thing we offer.
We refuse to gate the trade.
The trades have a culture of "figure it out yourself." That's how good people get washed out. We tell you what we know, in the order we wish someone had told us, and we don't pretend the information is rare.
We respect your time and your money.
Self-paced. No filler. No upsells. No hidden fees. Pricing on request because every situation is different and we'd rather have a conversation than play discount games. If we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
MEET THE FOUNDERS
We're not educators. We're techs.
Tru Tradesman’s Institute is led by two working HVAC instructors who still do the work. Not content writers reading scripts. Not academics with textbooks. 33+ years of combined experience between them, plus active industry licensing — the kind of people you’d actually want training the next generation of techs.
Dyron Gavin
Dean of Trades · Lead HVAC Instructor
- 25 years in the trades
- U.S. Veteran
- EPA 608 Certified
- OSHA 30 Certified
- PLC Instructor / Northbridge Instructor
Dyron Gavin serves as the Dean of Trades and Lead HVAC Instructor for Tru Tradesman’s Institute. He brings 25 years of trade experience, U.S. military service, and hands-on technical knowledge to the program.
Dyron is EPA 608 Certified and OSHA 30 Certified. He also serves as a PLC Instructor and Northbridge Instructor, helping students understand both technical trade fundamentals and real-world workforce expectations.
His instructional focus includes HVAC fundamentals, safety, jobsite discipline, tool usage, field readiness, residential and commercial HVAC awareness, troubleshooting, preventive maintenance, refrigerant safety, electrical awareness, PLC fundamentals, and student professionalism.
Dyron’s role is to help students become safer, more skilled, more disciplined, and better prepared for real opportunities in the trades.
Ramón Montero
HVAC Instructor · Licensed Contractor
- Florida-Licensed HVAC Contractor
- License #: CAC1819148 (Active)
- Licensed since July 2017
- Air Conditioning Contractor — Florida
- Residential & Commercial HVAC
Ramón Montero is an HVAC Instructor and Licensed Contractor at Tru Tradesman’s Institute. He holds an active Florida HVAC contractor license (CAC1819148), issued July 28, 2017, and brings 8+ years of formally-licensed field experience in residential and commercial HVAC work — on top of the deeper field experience required to qualify for licensure in the first place.
Ramón’s instructional focus includes residential and commercial HVAC installation and service, code compliance, licensing requirements, regulatory standards, and the professional side of working in the trade — the part most online programs gloss over but every working tech eventually has to know.
His role at Tru Tradesman’s is to make sure students don’t just learn how systems work — they learn how to work professionally inside the regulatory framework that licensed HVAC operates under. Code, permits, inspections, insurance, professional standards. That’s the difference between an apprentice who washes out at year two and a tech who ends up running their own truck.
SIX TRACKS UNDER ONE ROOF
HVAC is just the start.
Tru Tradesman’s Institute is being built as a six-vertical training organization for working-class career paths. HVAC is open for enrollment now. Electrical, Plumbing, Culinary, Music Production, and Media + Web Design are in active build, launching across 2026 and 2027. Each track follows the same approach: real certifications recognized in the field, curriculum built and taught by working professionals, lab work over theory dumps, community of practitioners, self-paced online delivery, no gatekeeping.
HVAC
Become a working HVAC tech in 6 months. OSHA 10 + EPA 608 exam access + textbook, all included.
- OSHA 10 access
- OSHA-10
- Required Textbook Included
Electrical
Get NCCER-ready and on a residential or commercial crew.
- NCCER Electrical Level 1
- OSHA-10
- NEC Code Exposure
Plumbing
Service calls or new construction. Real pipe-and-fixture training.
- NCCER Plumbing Level 1
- OSHA-10
- Plumbing Code Fundamentals
Culinary
Line cook to kitchen lead, with the certs that get you hired.
- ServSafe Food Handler
- ServSafe Manager
Music Production
Beats, vocals, mixes — and the business behind them.
- Digital Music Production
- Audio Engineering Basics
- Podcast Production
Media + Web
Build sites, brands, and content people pay for.
- Digital Branding
- Web Design
- Podcast Producer
WHAT WE OWE YOU
What you can hold us to.
What we promise
- Real curriculum taught by working professionals
- Industry-recognized certification prep — not internal certificates
- Community access where you can ask questions of practicing techs
- 30-day money-back guarantee on the foundational track, no questions asked
What we won't do
- We won't promise you a specific income
- We won't promise you a job
- We won't tell you this is easy
- We won't sell you upsells you don't need
What we expect from you
- Show up. Self-paced doesn't mean optional.
- Do the lab work. Watching videos isn't training.
- Ask questions. The community works because people use it.
- Respect the trade. The people teaching you have done the work — listen first.
You've read enough.
If this sounds like the program you wished existed when you started looking for a path into a trade — it is. The HVAC track is open. Two doors below.