National Park College (NPC) Marine Technology students, Conner Eary, Blake McGlaughn,
and Alex Prell (not pictured), are Suzuki-certified technicians after completing the
factory-training course earlier this month.
Three Suzuki instructors taught a factory training course for NPC students and technicians
in the NPC Marine facility. This course is designed to keep Suzuki technicians up
to date on Suzuki marine products.
“There are technicians coming in from all over the country to our facility to take
this course because Suzuki requires their technicians to be current on their products
just like every other manufacturer does. Suzuki is really popular in the marine industry,
and they are really involved with our program. They give us a lot of products. We
spend a lot of time training our students on Suzuki products,” said Delmar Hunter,
Marine Technology instructor.
“The students that are in this course taking this factory training are going to have
a certificate that they are factory-trained Suzuki technicians. So, they will have
a leg up on anybody else in the class that is applying for a position. It’s invaluable.
They’re gaining skills that normally a tech student wouldn’t get for at least two
years. Out in the field, it would take them at least a year, maybe two, to get sent
to a factory school, but we are letting some of our students get that experience during
the school year,” said Hunter.
Hunter went on to say, it is common for Suzuki to donate products to the Marine Technology
program after the course is over. This year Suzuki contributed a 175-horse-powered
motor for NPC students to use for training.
“It means a lot to me. It gets us an extra step in the door, gets us that extra knowledge
that we’ll need on down the road,” said NPC marine student Conner Eary.
“It’s pretty awesome to be able to get all these extra certifications for the price
that National Park charges. You would have to pay a lot more separately,” said NPC
marine student Blake McGlaughn.
