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February 04, 2026
From Apprentice to Teacher: Robert Collins on the Power of Paying it Forward
At Trane Technologies’ Advanced Technology Training Center in Davidson, North Carolina, decades of experience meet the next generation of HVAC talent.
When Robert Collins walked into Trane Technologies’ Charlotte office for the first time in 1992, he had no idea what a centrifugal chiller was. Coming from a residential HVAC background, he quickly realized he had a lot to catch up on. “I thought I was pretty savvy with HVAC,” he recalls, “but when I got here, I realized how much more I had to learn.”
More than three decades later, Robert is now one of the expert technical trainers at Trane Technologies’ new state-of-the-art Advanced Technology Training Center (ATTC) in Davidson, North Carolina – a 45,199 square foot training center that’s capable of accommodating up to 4,500 students and delivering 108,000 training hours annually.
“It’s a great time to be at Trane Technologies. I love my job. I love doing what I do. For the past 33 years, I’ve worked with a lot of good people who helped me throughout my career, and now I’m looking forward to helping others in theirs.”
Building Careers and Community: Robert Collins on 30+ Years with Trane
My name is Robert Collins and I've been at Trane since June the 15th of 1992. I'm a technical trainer for the equipment that's behind me, which is the water-cooled equipment. When I came to Trane, I did not know anything about big commercial equipment at all. I started out as an apprentice and then I moved to just a tech and started doing things on my own and eventually became a team leader for the Charlotte office. When I started at Trane, we had nine people, and then through time it ended up going up to 60 service techs. I just enjoy helping folks and going out and being with them on the job site, hands on, showing them things. So when I became a team leader, I took on the role of helping others, and I enjoy that. I mean, I'm a servant of people. It's in me. I can't stop it and I love doing it. I love helping people. And then when I found out this facility was being built, it was just my next step. It just seemed like where I needed to be. And so I applied for this job and fortunately got it. You start out in Pee Wee; you work on small equipment, and you make it to the Super Bowl. So this is the Super Bowl—this is what we have behind us here. You learn to do all of that, everything that you need from the beginning to the end to complete your career. Trane has so many talented people, and I'm looking forward to seeing them and meeting them and being a part of their life and hopefully helping them in their career.
A career built on mentorship
Like many of our technicians, Robert doesn’t see his career as having been built alone. In fact, he credits much of his success to his mentors and teachers. “There were some great people who were willing to teach me. We became personal friends.”
Those early experiences shaped how Robert viewed his work. “I’m a servant of people,” he says simply. “I just love helping people.” As he advanced to a team leader role in the Charlotte office, Robert oversaw a growing team of service technicians from just nine to over 60. But for him, leadership was never about hierarchy; it was about helping others grow. That belief is what ultimately led him to the new training center. “When I found out this facility was being built, I felt like it was my next natural step. It just seemed like where I needed to be,” he says.
Teaching the next generation of HVAC technicians
Robert started as an apprentice, literally sweeping the floors in Trane‘s Charlotte Sales and Service office. Today, he’s a technical trainer at the world’s most advanced HVAC training facility, a place where apprentices and seasoned technicians alike gain hands-on experience with both legacy and cutting-edge systems. “In this center, we’ll be teaching basic refrigeration and electricity, all the way up to working on a Centravac system,” Robert explains. “Technicians will be taught everything they need to know now along with new technology they'll see more of in the future.”
But more than teaching talent about compressors and wiring diagrams, Robert is hoping to continue Trane Technologies’ culture of people-first leadership. “The biggest things I’ve learned here haven’t been to do with equipment. It’s to do with people,” he says. “I’ve learned to listen to others, understand their point of view and put myself in their shoes.”
Robert Collins at the ATTC in Davidson, North Carolina
Life beyond the technician job
This belief that people are the foundation of every successful system is what drives both Robert’s teaching and Trane Technologies’ continued investment in mentorship. As Holly Paeper, Trane Technologies’ president of Commercial HVAC Americas says, “The ATTC embodies what has always set Trane Technologies apart: the belief that systems are only as strong as the people behind them, and people are only as strong as the knowledge they share.”
Outside of work, Robert finds balance in family and the outdoors. He and his wife are proud new grandparents, and he often spends weekends fishing, boating or volunteering with organizations that introduce children and people with disabilities to nature. “I spend time with a lot of children, getting them into the outdoors and helping them understand what it’s like to be out in the woods, hunting and fishing.” he says.
The company’s commitment to work-life balance and community engagement helps make that possible. “Trane Technologies promotes that life-work balance,” Robert says.
They even give you a day for volunteering, which is great. I get time off to spend with the people that I love and the kids that I help.
Robert Collins
HVAC Technical Trainer, Trane Technologies
Passing knowledge forward
Looking back, Robert can trace his career through the people who guided him — the mentors who became friends, the colleagues who became family. Now, standing at the entrance of the ATTC, he’s ready to do the same for others. “I had great people who taught me and helped me,” he says. “Now it’s my turn.”
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