The RV Technical Institute said it plans to resume in-person RV technician training in March, depending on the COVID-19 situation in Elkhart, Ind., where the institute is located.
In-person training was suspended due to COVID in early spring of 2020, but in its first full year of training, the institute still managed to put 649 students through its Level 1 program, Executive Director Curt Hemmeler told a small audience of industry press and RVTI partners Thursday on a Zoom call.
Initially, Hemmeler had set a goal of 1,000 during the first full year, but he’s satisfied with the number given how bizarre 2020 turned out to be.
“We presented that goal prior to this thing called COVID,” Hemmeler said. “I have complete confidence that we are going to accelerate.”
Thirty-six percent of those who went through training in 2020 did so via webinars RVTI hosted; 30 percent via RVTI’s Authorized Learning Partner program; 13 percent through RVTI’s Self-Paced Online (SPO) program, started last fallThe remainder of students trained through the other delivery methods RVTI offers including direct sales of textbooks to technicians who want to learn on their own, the in-person training offered in Elkhart before it was suspended, and 1 percent who opted to “test out” – meaning a technician with enough experience who pays to take the test so they can add “RVTI-certified” to their professional qualifications if they pass.
Authorized Learning Partners is the newest method RVTI uses to get its training out into the field. It allows technicians located far from Elkhart – or those who don’t want to take the self-guided online course – to go through certification training.
RVTI currently has 18 ALP’s, as they’re known, ranging from General RV and Johnson RV Center to the Pennsylvania Recreational Vehicle and Camping Association to the Indiana Department of Corrections.
“This is by far the most economical way for a group to train their technicians,” said Terry Holland, RVTI’s outreach manager, who runs the ALP program.
Hemmeler said since the inception of RVTI, the intent has never been to only have the training be offered in Elkhart. COVID necessitated speeding up some programs that would likely not have been implemented so quickly, such as the ALP program and the SPO training.
“One of the objectives I put on the RVTI team is, I did not want there to be any reason why a person couldn’t get trained,” said Hemmeler. “Whether I work for a large dealership, whether I’m a mobile tech, whether I don’t have a living person near me for 500 miles. I wanted to put as many options as possible out there for receiving the education, and so I’m happy to say I think we got there.”
Currently RVTI is offering Level 1 certification training; the Level 2 course is in its final stages of preparation and will be offered by June 1 at the latest, he said.
Once Level 2 training is off and running, RVTI staff will begin working on the Level 3 certification course, which will involve earning certifications from specific vendors, Hemmeler said.
One of those vendors will likely be Thetford. Mary Pouliot, vice president of sales and marketing at Thetford, was introduced during Thursday’s call as RVTI’s new chairwoman.
Another announcement made during Thursday’s call: As part of a “New Year Special”, from now until Feb. 28, RVTI is offering a complete Level 1 certification, including all the course materials and the tests, for $495. That’s regularly a $1,995 price tag.
For more details on that special, click here.
For more information on RVTI, click here.
