The National RV Training Academy (NRVTA) completed work on a 5,000-square-foot addition to the Big Red School House, the home base of NRVTA’s training operations.
The building will serve as classrooms and hands-on labs for the RV Fundamentals Class and advanced training courses for future RV technicians. A separate building on campus is now used to train RV inspectors.
The additional space gives the academy three new classrooms, each containing a service bay large enough to accommodate a 40-foot RV with its slides extended and room for students to walk around or work on the unit. In total, NRVTA has five classrooms and seven service bays for hands-on education. Two of the bays can be used for classrooms of up to 35 students, and three others can combine to accommodate a larger class size of up to 75 students, according to NRVTA founder and Director Terry Cooper.
“The Big Red School House is now 20,000 square feet in size,” Cooper reflected. “When I started teaching RV tech classes many years ago, I only had 5,000 square feet of classroom and bay space.”
Each classroom can be set up for formal instruction, used as a hands-on lab or a combination of the two. Students can participate in traditional lectures in one classroom and then go next door for a hands-on lab.
Todd Henson, lead technical instructor, said the new addition provides options for training students.
“With more classroom space,” Henson said, “we can start a new tract of advanced classes every seven weeks. In fact, once we complete a fundamentals class, we can split the advanced classes into A and B tracts to accommodate even more students while still maintaining an atmosphere that encourages questions and spirited discussion.”
Seven instructors work at NRVTA, helped by 10 classroom assistants. If every seat is filled in 2022, Cooper said the academy will train 5,200 people, not including RV owners attending specialized fundamentals courses four times a year that are tailored to their unique needs.
Tony Flammia, director of sales and marketing, said NRVTA is establishing itself through its hands-on training and the amount of equipment available for each student to use.
“One of our goals in 2022, is to partner with our graduates to make a noticeable difference in the RV industry,” Flamia said.
People interested in attending classes at the academy can call (903) 386-0444, email [email protected] or visit nrvta.com.
