This year, RVTI plans to scale its growth campaigns to attract more service technician recruits.
To accomplish the task, RVTI will introduce two schools for prospective RV techs, start Spanish-speaking initiative in its courses and expand its social media use.
Curt Hemmeler, the RV Technical Institute’s executive director and RVIA senior vice president of standards, said RVTI wants to make tech training more accessible to younger people.
“By setting up a high school and post-secondary school, the strategy is the teaching takes place where the students are,” Hemmeler said. “More importantly, on the high school side, when the students can be certified while they are in high school, they can immediately be employed by dealers across the country upon graduation.”
Hemmeler said dealers would pay less in training fees if potential employees already had certifications.
To grow its technician recruit base this year, RVTI plans to target the 10 states with the most RVers. Based on RV shipments and incoming interest from future students, the top 10 states are Texas, Florida, California, Tennessee, Colorado, New York, Michigan, Arizona, Washington and Pennsylvania.
The first school for prospective RV techs will open in September. RVTI will launch an RV tech training facility for high school students at Littleton Public Schools’ Explorative Pathways for Innovative Careers (EPIC) Campus in Littleton, Colorado. RVTI partnered with Windish RV Center to launch the facility.
The second school will open in October. To reach an older demographic, the institution partnered with Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, to build a tech training facility on the campus. RVTI’s first Level 1 class begins in October.
RVTI’s second growth strategy, launching pre-existing training courses in Spanish, is expected to begin by year’s end. Hemmeler said RVTI planned to at least have Spanish-language certification tests by year’s end.
The third growth strategy, involving expanded social media use, will involve RVTI launching two new social media campaigns. The first campaign will use social media channels to promote and educate consumers about an RV tech careers. The second campaign will educate consumers on requesting RVTI-certified techs when they take an RV in for repairs.
RVTI will look for social media influencers on Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram to lead the campaigns.
Hemmeler said together, the growth strategies enabled RVTI to focus heavily on recruitment. RVTI also plans to target Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) schools—career and vocational focused high schools. RVTI will attend and be a lead sponsor at all five ACTE regional conferences this year.
Hemmeler said all the efforts would add another 1,000 to 1,200 certified RV techs to the industry this year.
“We have already been growing over 20% every year for the last four years,” Hemmeler said. “I feel very confident in our efforts.”
Hemmeler said dealers interested in becoming teaching partners, and prospective RV technicians interested in RVTI’s courses, should contact RVTI at www.rvti.org.
Today’s Action Item: Check Out RVTI’s Upcoming Course Schedule
RVTI hosts both Level 1 and Level 2 in-person training at its Elkhart facility, as well as a hybrid option for Level 2 where students will take 11 weeks of online training and one week of in-person training at the RV Technical Institute. Note: Before registering for in-person training, you must purchase a subscription. Check out the course schedule here.
