The National RV Training Academy (NRVTA) is reflecting on a wide range of accomplishments in 2022 as the school looks forward to an even busier 2023.
Last year started with the reorganization of NRVTA’s leadership team. Founders Terry and Evada Cooper, as well as Steve and Kathy Jo Anderson, passed the reins to a new leadership team consisting of:
- Todd Henson, director of education
- Stephanie Henson, director of administration
- Tony Flammia, director of sales and marketing
- Gilda Mitchell, director of membership for the National RV Inspectors Association (NRVIA) and RV Technician Association of America (RVTAA)
Due to increasing enrollment, NRVTA announced the completion of a 5,000-square-foot addition to the Big Red School House. That created space for three new classrooms, each with a service bay large enough to accommodate a 40-foot RV with slides extended.
The NRVTA instructional team had grown to seven instructors, who were aided by 10 classroom assistants. Plans are currently being made to expand the other side of the Big Red School House for additional classroom space.
In April, RVTechCourse.com released a new home-study course designed to help RV owners better maintain their units to avoid costly repairs and downtime. More than 3,300 copies of the new self-directed class were sold in 2022. The series of 10- to 15-minute videos, handouts and workbooks help people understand new technology commonly found in RVs.
Producing more videos became a top priority for the school with the hiring of Garrett Syfrett and Jason Tener to form a video production team. NRVTA also invested more than $200,000 to outfit a professional studio to create training videos for the academy and its industry partners.
One of the first partners to take advantage of NRVTA’s training programs was Alliance RV, an Elkhart-based manufacturer which contracted with the school to develop videos to train customers how to use their Alliance coaches. Called the Alliance Academy, the program included a series of videos describing basic RV systems as well as providing detailed walk-thru orientations for Alliance RV models.
NRVTA purchased newer models of Dometic-branded RV air conditioners, water heaters and refrigerators. That enabled students to gain skills in diagnosing, repairing and replacing new electronics, circuit board and valves that had been developed in recent years.
Because Texas is home to 59 active military installations and active-duty members or veterans comprise 6.8% of the state’s population, NRVTA launched a program to give them a 10% discount on tuition. It applied to the RV Fundamentals class, a prerequisite for advanced training to become RV inspectors and technicians.
NRVTA bestowed five Champion Awards on Aug. 21 during the Texas RV Association’s (TRVA) 48th annual convention. The awards were given in recognition of the recipients’ partnership with the academy and its mission. Recipients included:
- Fred Petrivelli, vice president of sales for Keystone Automotive Operations, parent company of NTP-STAG. This was the second time the company was honored by NRVTA for its donations of RV appliances and other equipment for use in the academy’s hands-on training labs.
- Jay Vaarre, director of business for Dometic’s service division. He was recognized for sending multiple students through NRVTA training programs before deploying graduates as mobile service technicians.
- Ken and Cara Boggs, with Amazing RVs, a Texas dealership that has sent several technicians to NRVTA basic and advanced training courses.
- Rob Boyer, an Alliance RV staff member and service liaison. He worked with NRVTA to develop a customer empowerment program to provide basic technical training to Alliance RV owners.
- Kevin White, president of TRVA, who was honored for his long-term commitment to NRVTA, which the association endorsed as a training provider.
As demand for training continued to stretch the capacity of NRVTA’s classrooms, the school announced prospective students would have 21 date choices to begin the RV Fundamentals class during the 2023 school year. The schedule would ensure an average of 134 students were on campus every week.
NRVTA hosted its 2022 Expo event in late September, which featured 18 online webinars to help RV technicians and inspectors who are members of NRVIA or RVTAA, to meet continuing education requirements to maintain professional certifications. A total of 480 people registered for the annual event. By completing all courses, students earned 30 continuing education units.
Both NRVIA and the RVTAA have grown tremendously, said Gilda Mitchell.
“To date, there are more than 1,700 inspector and technician members,” she said. “Our goal is to grow both associations in 2023 and beyond. This would allow more professional RV technicians and inspectors to be accessible to consumers across North America.”
More than 44,000 people had subscribed to NRVTA’s YouTube channel, which featured more than 300 videos ranging from the Todd’s Tech Tip Tuesday series to talk-show formats, such as The Beard and the Bun show.
NRVTA wrapped up production of its own reality show in November in advance of airing the series on YouTube starting this March. Eight teams of popular YouTube creators will compete physically and mentally for a $10,000 cash prize and bragging rights to be crowned the first-ever RV Unplugged champions.
In December, NRVTA submitted its second annual report to the Texas Workforce Commission. It outlined the percentage of students, both employed and self-employed, who completed an NRVTA training program and were using their skills within an industry-related career.
All enrolled students and program graduates between September 2021 and August 2022 were included in the report. During that period, NRVTA had 1,580 enrolled students, of which 1,172 finished program requirements and earned certifications from RVTAA and NRVIA. Within the school’s advanced certification programs, 80% of graduates reported average starting wages of $105 an hour.
“I continue to be astonished by the amount of work our crew accomplishes year after year,” said Terry “Cooper” Cooper, founder of NRVTA. “These talented professionals continue to push the boundaries to improve our technical training capabilities as well as service to our students.
“As much as NRVTA has surpassed what Steve Anderson and I envisioned when we first opened our doors in 2017, I know we have also changed thousands of lives for the better by creating opportunities for people to succeed in new careers or businesses of their own,” he said. “It took a lot of faith and a sizeable investment to launch NRVTA. But we considered it our duty to serve the RV industry. We envisioned having a major impact by helping to train thousands of desperately-need technicians.
“However, we could not imagine the ripple effect our training programs would have, especially when it came to preparing people to become RV inspectors,” said Cooper. “In 2022, several major manufacturers announced plans to enhance their pre-delivery inspections before units are even shipped to dealers. I can’t help but think we may have played a role in that development.”