More people than ever, are deciding to extend their homes,
rather than move. This ultimately means more domestic tiling
projects.As more and more independent tiling training schools
diversify into other trade skills, can we blame it on the
‘credit crunch’? I can remember, not that long ago, where
I sat around a very large table at Construction Skills Head
Office with other like-minded owners of other tiling training
centres in the belief that by forming an association, namely
the Association of Tiling Training Providers (ATTP), we would
be setting up a body that would regulate the provision of
training in the tiling field alone. This body would be respected
within our industry and offer potential students throughout
the UK a standardised curriculum of tiling skills set by Construction
Skills together with hopefully the approval of The Tile Association
(TTA). This meeting was followed by subsequent meetings at
Weber head office.
I now see that the majority of those like-minded colleagues have since joined the realms of the multi-skill schools. Please don’t misunderstand me here. The owners of the multi-skill centres that already existed, who attended that very first meeting, appear to have and are continuing to do a very good job on the whole. My frustration is with those companies that sat around those tables and categorically expressed that tiling and tiling alone was what they believed in and was the only trade they wished to teach, which brings me back to my first point;
Has the ‘credit crunch’ forced these centres into applying other trade skills under their banner or is it that they set their target figures far too high originally and now when the going has become tougher they simply are not getting the bums on the seats they need to achieve a break-even situation? How sad that must be, to possibly be forced into attracting other potential students into other skills, such as plastering, plumbing and bathroom installation courses, to name a few, alongside their ailing tiling courses.
I therefore feel very fortunate to be able to have maintained a steady influx of students who solely wish to be taught to a very high standard of tuition in the art of tiling and tiling alone. I have no doubt that this is partly due to our refusal to take on large classes and that we have spent many years creating courses that appeal to prospective students who want to learn tiling as a craft, rather than an ‘add-on’.
This determination is paying off. We are now able to offer students the opportunity to pursue a flexible NVQ qualification with our own in-house NVQ assessor and have recently secured private funding of £100,000 for the sole purpose of being able to offer our potential students an untouchable deal of ‘you pay half, we pay the other half’. This clearly puts us in the very fortunate position of being able to maintain a healthy and consistent student intake and enjoy unrivalled success in ‘just tiling’ courses.
In conclusion, this means more people will learn tiling properly which will have an impact on the ‘cowboys’ of this world. This will strengthen the demand for professionally taught tilers who can also gain a qualification in the process. This in turn will have a huge positive effect on the tiling industry as a whole. This is why, I for one, set up a training school to teach tiling in the first place.
If you’d like to know more about our unique approach to teaching tiling skills, I’d be delighted to hear from you. Call me on 01797 229900.
