RVTI: The Teen Years

from RV News March 2022

by ⌘ ⇧ ⌥

Getting to the Bottom of the Solution

RV Technical Institute Executive Director Curt Hemmeler prepares for a virtual board meeting from his offi ce in Elkhart, Indiana.

Executive Director Curt Hemmeler said the fundamentals are in place for the RV Technical Institute to begin student recruiting outreach in 2022

By RV News Sta | Photos by Stillson Studio

Curt Hemmeler, the RV Technical Institute (RVTI) executive director, has been around the block since beginning his professional career three decades ago. He radiates life and energy when greeting visitors.

Much like Hemmeler’s deceivingly youthful appearance, the institute he leads is just three years old. In contrast to Hemmeler, RVTI looks like it has been around much longer.

“We still have a lot of growing to do,” he said, “but we have completed a lot of the fundamental things.”

In the past year, Hemmeler secured a landmark service training agreement with RV Retailer. RVTI doubled its sta and introduced two online training certi cation levels. As 2022 begins, the adult in charge said the teenage business is now heading into a year of recruitment.

“We had to get the curriculum standardized, we had to get the delivery models ready to go, and we had to get some processes in place,” Hemmeler said. “Now we are ready to start recruiting, which is something no one at RVTI has ever done…no one in the industry has ever done. We are beginning that this year, and we are excited about that because now we have all the pieces and parts we needed that we did not have two or three years ago.”

Bring Students into Fold Recruitment will be RVTI’s overriding 2022 focus. Former Furrion Vice President Tracy Anglemeyer joined the team in December as the director

Scott Rinker leads a Level 2 class at RVTI.

of recruitment. Account specialist Halle Edminster will assist her.

Hemmeler said RVTI needed more sta to begin technician recruiting e orts and further develop authorized learning partner relationships.

On the recruitment side, RVTI’s board of directors approved a 2022 goal to attract 1,000 students from outside the industry and 750 students from dealerships nationwide. Hemmeler said that should be just the start.

“ ese 1,000 students would be fresh folks, not a liated with the industry in any capacity, that we would bring in through our recruiting e orts,” Hemmeler said. “ ose in my mind are good beginning goals. We have a lot more to do than 1,000. I think we are actually setting a goal for ourselves for closer to 2,000.”

To draw students outside the RV industry, he said RVTI’s rst task is working with high school counselors.

He said having counselors talk about RVTI and a service technician career with students will pay o in time.

“ is will be something we will continue to seed over the years,” Hemmeler said.

Now we are ready to start recruiting, which is something no one at RVTI has ever done…no one in the industry has ever done.”

– Curt Hemmeler

A side bene t is the community relationships RVTI is building among high schools, students and dealerships. Hemmeler’s vision is to create a continuous, annual pipeline feeding new technicians into local dealerships.

Another recruitment e ort is the organization’s participation in the recent RV consumer shows. RVTI representatives went to the Tampa SuperShow and MARVAC’s Detroit RV and Camping Show. RVTI representatives set up booths at each event and spoke with consumers about potentially becoming a mobile technician or creating a side gig as an RV service tech.

Veterans are a third recruitment target audience. Hemmeler said a technician career is often popular with people leaving active duty, especially the National Guard or the Army Reserve.

A nal recruitment strategy entails partnering with Bisk Education, the educational content design team that helped RVTI launch its self-paced online instruction materials. e partnership includes buying leads,

Mike Anderson teaches plumbing basics to a Level 1 service technician class.

branding and having a call center represent RVTI as its admissions facility. Call center sta will convert admissions inquiries into enrollment, either at the Elkhart facility or through one of RVTI’s 33 authorized learning partners. Hemmeler said outreach such as high school recruitment and consumer shows provides RVTI sta a chance to see rsthand the interest in a service technician career path.

“As we venture down this recruitment road, we believe there is a lot of interest out there,” he said. “All leading indicators tell us there is interest in doing the service technician career.”

Authorized learning partners’ growth is another recruitment tool RVTI will rely on in 2022, Hemmeler said. Dealers, manufacturers, RV trade associations, colleges, a corrections department, a sheri ’s department and an entire school district are current learning partner organizations. He said the broad reach of its partners will help support recruiting.

“Obviously, we are relying on them to do their own individual marketing to look for employees or technicians,” he said. “We are there to help complement that. We will spend dollars on a national level, we will spend dollars on a local level, but it helps to have all these learning partners spending their dollars to attract talent that they will then put into the training program.”

Training Up Recruiting new students might be the year’s theme, but training

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and certifying them is the primary focus, Hemmeler said.

“We reach perfection when we ask a student, ‘Would you refer this to a friend?’ and they say, ‘Yes,’” he said. “To me, an indicator of whether we are doing things right is when I have heard nothing but ‘yes’ answers.” e 2021 self-paced online curriculum spurred education the past year. With Level 1 and Level 2 programs fully launched, Hemmeler said for every one student interested in faceto-face training, two more want to study online.

In particular, he said, the Level 1 online training is popular. He said the Level 1 lessons are easier to consume than the online advanced training.

“Success is a product of two things,” he said. “One is the exibility that online learning brings. It is also the quality and the interaction a person goes through when they experience the online program. It is surprising to a lot of folks. Everyone believes they Level 1 students gathered in person the week of Feb. 14.

need it face-to-face, but we created it in a format so the experience is as close to a face-to-face delivery as you can get.”

RVTI measures training outcomes by comparing online nal exam scores with in-person testing scores. Success rates are nearly identical.

As time passes, Hemmeler expects the curriculum to continue evolving. He said the changes will be driven by continuous innovation as well as the

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Level 2 students can take classes in person, online or with a combination of both after the introduction of self-paced online instruction .

ease in making curriculum updates–adding or changing lessons in the learning module system (LMS).

“You do not have to wait and republish a bunch of text,” he said. “You can just do it pretty easily through the LMS.”

Industry Champion Another metric RVTI uses to track success is participation. Total student enrollment is one participation measurement, but an increase in dealerships signing up is a better measurement, Hemmeler said.

“ e amount of dealerships that are participating now, the amount of independent technicians that are signing up to take classes indicates to me that word is beginning to spread,” he said. “ e interest is there.”

One major dealer chain’s involvement gave RVTI an immense enrollment boost. In 2021, RV Retailer signed an agreement to become an authorized learning partner. e company set a goal to train and certify 500 service technicians in 12 months.

“I cannot say enough about RV Retailer, (CEO Jon Ferrando) and the team,” Hemmeler said.

Although the dealer chain had a daunting goal, Hemmeler said they achieved it.

“Hands down, not only did they talk it, they did it,” he said. “We are very glad to be in partnership with them.”

RV Retailer’s impact went beyond the 500 technicians, however. Hemmeler said he could not track how many dealers or independent technicians signed up because of RV Retailer’s commitment. Anecdotally, he said the agreement spurred interest inside and outside the industry.

All leading indicators tell us there is interest in doing the service technician career.”

– Curt Hemmeler

“ ey said, ‘Wait, if they are doing it, we probably should do it as well,’” Hemmeler said. “I can’t put a nger on what that exact number would be, but it de nitely sparked interest.”

RV Retailer’s Jon Ferrando joined the RVTI board of directors, and he is expected to renew the annual agreement as an authorized learning partner. Hemmeler said the decision is

evidence of RV Retailer’s commitment to service training.

“RV Retailer, hands down, has trained the most individuals out of all our learning partners,” he said.

Removing Barriers RVTI expects the new 2022 participant pricing to make the education viable for more dealerships and independent technicians. RVIA, RVDA and Go RVing are subsidizing some RVTI costs to lower the price. Individual subscriptions for Level 1 and Level 2 in-person or online training cost $300 annually. An annual subscription for dealerships to enable access to Level 1 and Level 2 training for all employees is $1,200.

“What really helped was it removed cost as a barrier,” Hemmeler said. “Not just to our dealer partners or our OEM partners but to the general public that might be interested in coming in, whether it be a mobile tech that is looking to get trained to start their own mobile business.”

Hemmeler said four to ve times more students enrolled in January than the same month in 2021. As RVTI advertises the reduced pricing, he said higher enrollments are expected to grow.

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