RV Technical Institute (RVTI) Executive Director Curt Hemmeler recently returned from an appearance at the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) annual conference. He said the move was a gateway into more than 24,000 high schools across the country.
“We stole the show,” Hemmeler said during a Zoom call Thursday hosted by RVIA.
Hemmeler and RVTI Manager Tammy Holland set up shop with a 30-foot RV provided by Camping World of Las Vegas and greeted some of the 3,000 school counselors in attendance. The goal, Hemmeler said, is to create relationships with the schools and enable them to become an Authorized Learning Partner (ALP).
“We provide the school with curriculum, they provide an instructor to take students through the process, and we connect them with local dealers in the area to provide some of the equipment they need to train on,” Hemmeler said. “These schools can produce Level 1 and Level 2 techs while they still are juniors or seniors in high school.”
The outreach is one of many ways Hemmeler detailed in which RVTI is looking to connect with recruiting opportunities. From school counselors to a Future Farmers of America conference in Indianapolis in October, from state and federal prisons to trade schools, Hemmeler is looking to gain as many ALPs as possible across the country.
“This is the part of taking this job that I am most excited about,” he said. “Hopefully those 3,000 (counselors) went back and told 10 people about the experience they had.”
Among the areas of focus is creating ALP onboarding to ease adoption as RVTI rolls out more programs to more kinds of partners. Hemmeler said RVTI is reaching a wide enough variety of ALPs to examine how to best deliver curriculum to each. For example, he said most prisons do not have internet access. The revelation forced RVTI to examine how to change its curriculum delivery to meet students’ needs.
“We are looking at that every day,” he said. “It is a continual process to make it better.”
It is not, however, a fast process. After a recent strategic planning meeting, Hemmeler said the RVTI board examined targets and goals to roll out curriculum to ALPs. He said adoption across the various platforms he detailed was a three to five-year process, rather than something that could be achieved in 2021.
“This is a longer play for a bigger return,” he said. “My goal is to have enough quick wins to keep everyone excited. But this will be an evolution over the next couple of years.”
