ASHRAE celebrated the grand opening of its new Global Training Center in Dubai with a ribbon cutting ceremony and reception. The Global Training Center will serve ASHRAE members and other building systems professionals in the Gulf Region and surrounding areas.

“ASHRAE and our members are working tirelessly toward our goal of extending our global community to better embrace our industry's shared needs and objectives,” said 2017–2018 ASHRAE President Bjarne W. Olesen, Ph.D. "Dubai was an intentional and obvious location to establish the ASHRAE Global Training Center. In doing so, we hope to ensure the technical guidance we produce for all members continues to strengthen through global diversity. This center will empower our members in the Middle East with the knowledge they need to better serve the needs of their local communities.”

The focus of the ASHRAE Global Training Center is to make curricula-based training conveniently available on a regular schedule. The training offered in the center is customized and scalable based upon climate, culture, suppliers, energy sources, prices, codes and construction practices. The center's instructors are engineers familiar with the intricacies of the Middle East.

To commemorate the opening, ASHRAE hosted a day of events, including a ribbon cutting ceremony, media tours of the facility, and presentations from ASHRAE members.

“The ASHRAE Global Training Center will bring the Society's industry leading resources together with highly respected instructors to the Middle East, where robust economic activity and challenging climatic conditions are creating an ever-increasing demand for ongoing training,” said Walid Chakroun, Ph.D., and former chair of ASHRAE's Publishing and Education Council.

The Global Training Center has already hosted its inaugural training session, “HVAC Design Essentials.” Participants received real-world examples of HVAC systems based on the renovated ASHRAE Headquarters and on buildings in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region. The training leaders for this course were Walid Chakroun, Ph.D., Fellow ASHRAE, and Donald Brandt, BEAP.

Courses are scheduled through the remainder of 2017 with the next available training opportunities to be held in October.

Visit www.ashrae.org/globaltrainingdubai.