Leading water heater manufacturer A. O. Smith is celebrating the grand opening of its newly renovated Technical Training Facility located at its Customer Care Facility in Ashland City, Tennessee. Renovations include upgrades to the onsite training classroom, hands-on training labs, video production studio, and A. O. Smith University's online training offerings.

The onsite training facility will offer traditional classroom sessions, as well as real-world, hands-on training in A. O. Smith's three fully functional residential, commercial and tankless product labs. Participants are invited to interact with all A. O. Smith product lines and apply the skills they've just learned in the classroom. Improvements made in this facility will allow an additional 500 contractors to attend onsite trainings this year.

The new video production studio will focus on providing A. O. Smith partners with more robust online, and on-demand training options, including online product workshops, factor certifications, and continuing education credits, as well as more than 100 hours of online content covering the entire line of A. O. Smith residential and commercial products.

With expanded capabilities in 3D animation, 360-degree cameras and virtual reality, the studio can now communicate concepts that previously would have been difficult or impossible even in an in-person, classroom setting. These classes will be offered as live-streaming training events, which contractors can attend from the comfort of their home or office, but still interact and ask questions in real time.

"A. O. Smith is consistently focused on training and education for our valued partners. The newly renovated Technical Training Facility was designed to provide a more functional space allowing  us to provide richer content, while also reducing the time and cost involved with creating it," said Jason Leonard, technical training manager for A. O. Smith. "Providing world class solutions and in-depth industry education continues to be a huge goal for our team and this facility allows us to take that initiative to the next level."

More than 80,000 industry professionals attended A. O. Smith University training last year. To learn more about the training facility or other educational offerings from A. O. Smith, visit www.university.hotwater.com.