LITTLETON, Colo. – More than 100 parents, students and RV industry members visited Littleton Public Schools’ EPIC Campus on Wednesday evening as the industry put on its public face to let the Denver area know what the RV Technical Institute is all about.
EPIC has been offering RVTI courses as part of its program to provide career track education for students who might not be interested in or financially able to attend college.
In essence, the campus is a modern-day, souped-up version of a vocational technical school. But instead of just teaching skills, it offers education designed to put students into trade jobs or apprenticeships that will lead to jobs.
Programs range from aerospace to construction trades but on Wednesday, the RV industry took center stage as RVTI Senior Manager for Recruitment Justin Rickett and Executive Director Curt Hemmeler visited along with 15 industry partners from manufacturing and supplier companies such as AquaHot and RV dealerships like Windish RV to get more students interested in the RVTI coursework.
“It’s a night to educate the community and get the students excited about the program,” Rickett said. “We’re happy to report the next class that will start in January is already full, but this allows us to show the jobs available not just on the tech side but on the industry as a whole.”
Windish already has hired a student from the program and Grand Design has provided a trailer that students are able to work on during classwork to familiarize themselves with the trade.
“This was a vision five years ago to strategically grow the industry’s amount of certified technicians,” Hemmeler said. “I’d like to recognize Justin and the team’s efforts to launch the vision so that we are executing on that strategic plan of having high schools that teach the program so that students come out already certified and employable. EPIC and Windish and RVTI all coming together is the first of many to come.”
With the pilot program in place, Hemmeler is confident RVTI will be able to build on what is working at the EPIC campus.
He said he has received interest from a number of schools in the K-12 segment since the EPIC program started. Navarro College in Corsicana, Texas, will launch a similar program later in October for its students and Hemmeler said plans are in the works in Arizona and New York as well.
JTech Institute in Jacksonville, Fla., also has a program already running.
“In 2026 and beyond we’re going to continue to expand,” he said.
Hemmeler said another avenue for education recently opened up when the RVTI advisory board approved a plan to launch a Spanish-language version of the Level 1 and Level 2 certification test and study guides.
The meeting took place on the last day of Open House in Elkhart, Ind.
“That will be out before the end of the year,” he said. “This just exemplifies the continued growth and reach of our mission which is to find and recruit people to the industry. This opens another segment with our Hispanic population.”
