The National RV Training Academy (NRVTA) is expanding its facility in response to spiking RV technician and inspector training demand.
The academy is adding 5,000 square feet to its Big Red School House, a 15,000-square-foot primary training building that sits on a 37-acre campus near Dallas. The additional space will provide more equipment storage, primarily to boost classroom sizes to accommodate more advanced courses and hands-on labs.
More than 100 students achieve a professional credential each month, the academy stated, whether as an RV Technician Association of America (RVTAA) certified tech, or an inspector certified with the National RV Inspectors Association (NRVIA).
“As the largest RV training center in America, NRVTA provides the most hands-on equipment of any other school,” the academy’s president and co-founder, Terry Cooper, said. “The ability of our students to use modern equipment to diagnose and repair major components onboard every RV means we are preparing more than 100 qualified technicians every month.”
Students learning new and used RV inspections will be provided more lab space to help them evaluate components and systems, Cooper added.
After becoming the only licensed RV career school in Texas earlier this year, NRVTA’s classrooms have been filled to capacity, the academy stated.
“Our school maintains a list of RV dealerships looking for technicians who will hire graduates as soon as they complete training,” Cooper said. “People can get training and be employed as an RV technician within two months of arriving at our campus.”
Many NRVTA graduates wish to pursue self-employment as mobile RV service technicians and home-based RV inspectors, said Steve Anderson, NRVTA co-founder and chief financial officer.
The academy is the only training facility in the U.S. authorized by NRVIA to provide training needed to qualify as a certified RV inspector. NRVTA is the only school west of the Mississippi River that can provide education needed to attain credentials as a professional technician, Anderson said.
“We founded NRVTA to address a critical shortage of RV technicians that has plagued the RV industry for decades,” Anderson said. “We developed a curriculum that not only ensures students are technically proficient when they graduate, but they are also able to start their own businesses to provide mobile repair services and RV inspections if they wish to pursue self-employment.”
Construction of the building expansion will be completed by October and will not disrupt classes.
