2 minute read
Marine Tech Program Pays Off for National Park Students
from Blueprint 2022
National Park College of Hot Springs’ marine technology program prepares students to serve a growing demand in the boat marketplace.
“It’s a degree that’s in demand in our state and nationwide,” said Delmar “Dino” Hunter, marine technology instructor. “We get phone calls from all over the region, from Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Florida and Arkansas, just begging for technicians. I’ve even gotten calls from the Cayman Islands to see if I can send them a technician.”
Marine technicians fulfill several different roles within the marine industry. They can work for boat manufacturers or in the service department of boat dealerships providing a number of functions, from the shop to the warranty department.
“You don’t have to just be a technician,” Hunter said. “There’s all kinds of things you can do in this industry besides turn a wrench.”
National Park’s curriculum is unique because the college maintains partnerships with three of the major boat manufacturers and therefore includes a lot of these companies’ factory curriculum in the degree.
“We have partnered with Yamaha, Mercury and Suzuki and they all support our program a whole lot,” Hunter said. “They give us new engines to work on. They’ve actually helped design curriculum for the industry, which we’ve adopted. It’s just a really great partnership. We’re not the only marine tech program in the state, but I’m almost positive we’re the only one with all three engine manufacturers partnering with us.”
National Park limits classes to 20 students for the nine-month coursework to allow everyone to get plenty of individual attention. The college just started introducing high school students into the program, coinciding with opening a new education space that houses hands-on and classroom work.
“We train on all types of marine engines, but we focus on theory for many of them because there’s such a huge variety,” Hunter said. “You can’t really touch everything well, so we pick the theory that is behind each engine to get our students to understand that one engine may look slightly different than another but they work basically the same way. If you understand how it works, you can repair it.
“Each manufacturer has their own path, and so we set our students up with the opportunity to get started down all three paths from the three different manufacturers we’re partnered with. Once you get hired at a dealership, that dealer will send you back to a factory school for some more advanced training that’s product specific.”
Hunter said given the number of boat manufacturers in the state, and the reputation of the National Park program, more students are exploring the degree, beginning in high school.
“It’s been a slow process because getting the word out about a technical program has been a difficult challenge,” Hunter said. “But as we’ve enlisted factory support in doing that, and as our school has done a really good job of helping advertise our program, our numbers have begun to grow quickly.”
Learn more at np.edu.
