Mercury Marine to permanently offer Accelerated Outboard Certification training
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Mercury Marine has announced that it will offer additional programming for marine technicians as part of its Mercury University Accelerated Outboard Certification program.
The program, which allows a select group of new technicians to become Mercury certified in only three weeks, will become part of Mercury University’s permanent offerings.
“Our dealers have been asking for a program that reduces the time it takes for a new technician to become certified,” said to Rob Schrage, Mercury Marine director of field service development and operations. “In this program we are able to offer world-class training in a short period of time without compromising the integrity of our industry leading certification process. Due to the positive response we received from the dealers, we are excited to continue offering this program.”
To take part in the accelerated program, technicians must be employed by a Mercury dealership and are selected by a recommendation given by the dealership in conjunction with a Mercury Marine field service representative. Each session is limited to 14 technicians.
Melvin Grove from Alaska Frontier Fabrication in Wasilla, Alaska, took advantage of the program to get his technician certified.
“Travel from Alaska is extremely expensive and time consuming. The Accelerated Outboard Certification program got our technician certified quickly, and saved us thousands in travel costs,” Grove said.
Traditionally, technicians take courses as schedules and workload allows which could take years depending on how much time a technician has to devote to training.
In the Accelerated Outboard Certification Program, technicians attend one week of intense instructor-led online training through Mercury University’s Distance Learning and two weeks of in-class hands-on training at a Mercury University training facility in either Suwanee, Georgia, or Dallas, Texas.
The course and exam requirements are the same for both the traditional and accelerated programs.
Mercury University will be running a fall program in October 2018 and a spring program in April 2019.