Last Friday, we spoke to you about the new Career and Technology Center coming to Dunseith, but something unique about the center is that it will also be the first high school in North America with a level two RV technician program — which helps students line up jobs with the Hoefer RV Manufacturing Plant right in town.
The center, which is expected to be completed next year, will offer a special program that could help students find work right after completing it.
The center will be fostering a level two RV technician training program, and it will have a feeder system for jobs with the Hoefer RV Manufacturing Plant, which is set to open later this year in the city.
“This CTE facility will be an instrumental part to helping train and get that workforce up to speed,” said Dave Lehman, the advanced manufacturing business development manager for the North Dakota Department of Commerce.
The CEO of the Hoefer Group says training Dunseith students will help the company in the long run, which is setting up a manufacturing plant just down the road.
“Getting a skilled worker these days in a plant that knows the whole drill of something pertaining to your industry, no matter what the industry is,” said Charles Hoefer. “It’s a gift, a bit of a blessing if you can find workers that already have the prerequisites and prequalifications, so to speak.”
The technician program will also benefit the RV industry, which is currently booming, by training more people in being able to service and repair RVs.
RVs are in such high demand right now that they need more RVs to build.
That’s why skilled workers from our region are extremely important.
“We’re looking to finish this year, the second-largest year in the history of the RV space, second only to last year,” said Curtis Hemmeler, the executive director of the RV Technical Institute and the Senior VP for the RV Industry Association. “As a result of that, the need for service technicians across the country, not just people that can fix them, but experts.”
The manufacturing plant will be beneficial to Dunseith by bringing jobs to the community, but it will also benefit the state as a whole.
“Manufacturing allows new wealth to come to the state,” said Lehman. “So if you’re adding value to something in North Dakota, you’re selling it outside of North Dakota, that brings new dollars into the state. And it helps the state to grow and to develop.”
If the plant in Dunseith successfully grows, there will be a good reason to expand throughout North Dakota.
From the start, it will make the town stronger.
Hoefer says the collaboration between the CTE center, the program with the RV Technical Institute, and his manufacturing plant are perfect together.
“Being able to bring that into the fold of Dunseith, having that five blocks away from the plant, and being able to use that as a job feeder, it couldn’t go hand in hand in a better way,” said Hoefer. “And it will help our company to be able to grow, as we’re looking to get about 50 to 60 new people a year.”
He says he’s excited to be a part of the growth and bring jobs back to the Dunseith community, which lost around 1,200 jobs over the last 25 years. So this boost in manufacturing jobs will help fill in that hole.
Renovations are still being done at the Hoefer RV Manufacturing Plant.
A grand opening is expected to happen this fall.