The RV Technical Institute (RVTI) took a strategic step forward Wednesday evening in its efforts to recruit and train the next generation of RV technicians.
Littleton (Colorado) Public Schools’ Explosive Pathways for Innovative Careers (EPIC) Campus officially kicked off its RVTI-approved training program with a ribbon-cutting. The program will welcome a dozen students into a semester-long Level 1 training program beginning in January. The program will lay the foundation for future training partnerships.
Wednesday’s ceremony was the culmination of three years of work and planning involving Colorado-based Windish RV, RVTI, Grand Design RV and Littleton Public Schools. The EPIC Campus provides high school students with immersive learning experiences in fields including aerospace, construction trades and health sciences.
RVTI Executive Director Curt Hemmeler said the EPIC Campus program will be the blueprint for future programs.
“Not all high school students are built to go that traditional college route,” Hemmeler said. “This is an alternative for those kids, and this is just the first one. What you see here is the future. It is the future of what can happen when business, industry and education all come together.”
Hemmeler credited Windish RV President Whitney Holtz and her team for starting the conversation with the EPIC Campus. He thanked Grand Design President and CEO Don Clark and the manufacturer for donating an RV to give students hands-on experience during the training course.
Grand Design’s Imagine 2800BH travel trailer was the star of the evening in its new home just outside the EPIC Campus’ construction lab. Construction Trades Pathway Lead Marc Finer, who oversees the EPIC Campus training, said the Imagine RV has become a favorite student hangout spot.
“We put the awning out and usually have the camp chairs around, so the students will play music and just enjoy it,” Finer said. “It is such a great tool for the students to learn, but it is more than that. It’s a showpiece, right? It gets the students and the people in the community talking about our program. The students are always excited to work with it.”
The EPIC Campus hosted an RVTI-approved Level 1 technician course in the summer of 2024. Two student trainees were selected for internships at Windish RV.
Windish RV Service Manager Russ Young said he had concerns about bringing in high school students.
“I figured I would be seeing them on their phones all the time, but they were not like that at all,” Young said. “When I came to EPIC to interview candidates, I was totally blown away. Those students interviewed better than any adults I had interviewed the past few years.”
Young said the students he hired showed a desire to learn and were always engaged in the work.
Finer said students’ professionalism is by design. He said 40% of students’ grades at EPIC Campus are based on professionalism, communication, collaboration and critical thinking.
“We have the opportunity to get these kids ready for the workforce,” Finer said. “We talked with industry and asked, ‘What do you need our students to do?’ The answers we got were that they needed to know how to show up every day and on time, and that they needed to have that work ethic.”
Henry Schnelle was one of those two Windish RV interns. He has since been hired as a full-time technician at the dealership.
“I am pretty happy being a tech,” Schnelle said. “Fixing and building stuff is the kind of thing I have always liked. I get to do a lot of problem-solving with RVs because it is never just one thing. There is always a lot of stuff you have to figure out to fix the problem.”
Future EPIC Campus students will get something Schnelle did not: a full semester-long course that will lead to Level 1 certification. RVTI Senior Manager of Recruitment Justin Rickett said students will receive training beyond the Level 1 certification.
“The Level 1 course is based on a work week, or around 40 hours,” he said. “So, taking a 40-hour course and turning it into a semester course, we are able to get into some of the Level 2 stuff as well. We are calling it Level 1-plus.”
Hemmeler credited Rickett with developing a first-in-the-nation high school program for certifying RV technicians.
“This is why I said yes to taking this job,” Hemmeler said. “I wanted to come in here and build a program to develop technicians for this industry. I believe this is a good, sustainable career. We just need to develop more programs like this one to let people know about the industry and the opportunities it offers.”
RVTI will celebrate the opening of its first college-approved training program later this month at Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas.
The Wednesday ceremony in Colorado included information booths from several RV-industry suppliers, including Dragonfly Energy, Garnet, Lippert and Thetford. Mike Bloss of Lippert Technical Institute talked with interested students about the various products the supplier makes.
“RVTI told us this was going on, and we wanted to make sure that we showed up and showed our support for this,” Bloss said. “We think this is a great opportunity for students to take a look at the RV service industry. We would love to see them come into our industry and strengthen what is already here. We all know we need more technicians.”
