If you’re looking for a tiling course then there’s a few factors you need to consider before booking up with any Tom, Dick or Harry. This post is designed to outline a few of those factors to give you a better start.
The fact that BAL have now stated they are offering their training brand as a franchise clearly tells us that these tiling courses and tiling training centres are money making machines.
I hope by the end of this article you are thinking seriously about your choice of training establishment!
Make sure you read all the feedback you can find online!
Make sure the training centre you choose has a good reputation. You can find course feedback online on website’s such as TilersForums.co.UK. TilersForums.co.uk is an independent Forum and is not connected to any training centre but other forums and online communities are lead by the actual training centres so you can’t really compare the feedback of a couple of training centres for example. And of the feedback you do see, how much of it is genuine and not the Staff of the training centre themselves posing as former students?
Support those that support the industry Association!
The only way the whole industry will ever move forward as one is to support the only existing Association in the industry, which is The Tile Association.
The Tile Association supports training centres that are good and the ones they don’t support usually just don’t use their name at all but some training centres get a little hot headed and seem to think that if they can’t be part of the existing association then they’ll make their own association.
This is sometimes considered to be giving out the wrong message. There’s only the TTA and there always will be. The TTA are currently in the process of ensuring all good training centres are offering NVQ’s and the bad ones don’t get business through them.
Make sure you get trained by somebody who is Qualified!
As a tiler you can earn a fair wage tiling. So why would a good tiler become an instructor for a training centre working for somebody?
Make sure you’re not being sold the experience of the training centre owner but would be shown the ropes in the training centre by an ex car salesman or a carpenter for example.
Make sure the trainer has tiled before and feel free to ask to see their C.V. and proof of their NVQ certificate and any other credentials they claim to have. And make sure the name on those certificates will be the person who will be teaching you.
There are too many people getting charged for tiling training and getting shown the ropes by somebody who is just as inexperienced! This has to stop!
Don’t get fooled by the “we help you setup a business” aspect!
Many training centres get picked due to the fact that they can help a new tiler setup in business. Then on the course they’ll spend your valuable tiling time sitting down and chatting about the right banks and marketing tactics etc.
Now what they don’t tell you is that this information is provided free of charge by hundreds of sources such as Banks, Accountants, Representatives of related companies and most of all, the Government funded organisation Business Link.
So if you’re going on a tiling course, just consider them for their tiling training and NOT their ability to help you setup in business.
It’s good to hear they tell you a few tips but to sit and tell 20 tilers how to setup in business is a joke when they know the market in the tilers local areas will be soooo different to each others and the tiler from the same area are going to be hitting the same tile shops, banks and business card printers.
Don’t choose them just because they have certain Brand Names and representatives of those companies in to “visit” you for a free chat!
It’s easy as a training centre to call a company and tell them that there are 15 – 20 new businesses at their unit each week and ask for a Representative to call round on a regular basis to give talks! But these reps would come your own home to chat too!
So what is happening here? These “free-talks” are just taking up your tiling time and enabling the training centre to act like a conference meeting point for reps to tout for your business which is sick to know the training centre is charging you for this service that’s provided free by the company the rep is part of anyway!
Don’t book with a 4 week course knowing a good few days worth of that course are spent by listening to reps selling you their services and products!
And if the training centre says you can sit out of them then, make sure you have THE QUALIFIED trainer around to help you out and use this time wisely while some of the class are off getting sold services by the reps you get a one to one session.
Don’t get sold by the “We get you exclusive trade accounts with credit limits”!
Any tiler is entitled to a trade account with tile retailers such as Topps Tiles and trade outlets like CTD (ceramic tile distribution). To say this service is an exclusive one is just fooling around with you to get your trust and your hard earned cash. There’s no benefit in signing up with these trade accounts at the training centre so why bother? Sign up afterwards. But don’t spend too much time at the training centre talking about it and certainly don’t choose a training centre just because of the accounts.
Due to the large amount of new tilers being pushed in the industry one Topps member of staff on TilersForums.co.uk actually now asks to see a portfolio full of examples of work in real customers jobs and even a few references from customer with their telephone numbers on to checkout the tilers work before trusting him to get business from the store. So you don’t want to be included in ‘that weeks set of new tiler trade accounts’ all the time with these companies offering you trade discounts.
Be sure you’re not too crowded!
It’s OK to have 20 tilers on a course providing there’s 3 or 4 trainers. One to one training would be just too much so it’s OK to share a teacher, just not with 19 other tilers. One teacher watching 10 guys can be hard and you’ll find the teacher just couldn’t point out as much about your work as he could if there were less to watch.
Make sure you are being covered by THE QUALIFIED tiling teacher 100% of the time you are in the practical training environment. And make sure when you’re in the theory environment you’re being lectured by QUALIFIED TEACHERS and not a company rep!
Recap:-
- Check feedback online and only trust feedback that’s governed by an independent body!
- Support those that don’t slag off the industry Association!
- Make sure you are being trained by a QUALIFIED TILER at least, preferably an NVQ Assessor or similar.
- Don’t let them spend too much time on getting your business setup, there are plenty of FREE sources for this!
- Don’t let them sit you in front of Reps of companies to do talks on their products – That’s FREE elsewhere too – obviously!
- Don’t book just because you get credit accounts with certain industry trade outlets, those are also FREE!
And a couple of Good Business ethics.
- Don’t give business to a company that compare themselves to their competition directly, there’s always a catch and they would never point out their competitions’ benefits over their own.
- Don’t give business to a company that knocks their competition in any way, a good company wouldn’t need to.
- Don’t always go for the cheapest or the most expensive, normally the one between the two has studied the market better and can then provide the best.
- Always read the small print!
Recommended course providers can be found on the Tiling Courses website and feedback about them can be found in the Tiling Courses Feedback Forum at the Tiling Forum. And there’s even a list of Tiling Courses on this website too.
20 August, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Couldn’t have put that better myself..that was a cracking article and if you are thinking of enrolling on a course then take great notice of what is wrote in the fore mentioned article….
yours…D-howe (time-served tradesman )..
Good luck in your chosen new career…
20 August, 2007 at 7:32 pm
Thanks Dave. Still adding to it as I spot dodgy selling tactics.
Reader, please feel free to point out any you hear about!
20 August, 2007 at 7:46 pm
This shows you how they fill a 4 and 6 week tiling course and is the perfect article for somebody looking for a course. I wish I found it before I booked!
20 August, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Superb article and well constructed Tile Guy.We all have a responsibility within the industry,to to protect and nurture our Trainees,in all aspects of construction..G.K.Walmsley (time-served tradesman/retailer)
26 August, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Few questions to the writer.
Why does it matter if a company is running a tiling and plumbing course for example? Seems an obvious connection for something like bathroom refurbs. You’d go to a college that runs several different courses.
Why is feedback on a forum owned by a company not valid feedback? Who is to say that the feedback submitted to tilersforums is not the training companies posing as ex students? It’s just as likely.
(As an aside I have personally met some delegates of one training school that operate a forum and so can vouch for the comments posted)
27 August, 2007 at 4:10 pm
According to feedback by those that have tried both tiling only and tiling / plumbing or tiling / plastering courses that tiling only training centres provide optimum TILING training experience, as it’s their bread and butter, it’s what they do. The main thing is to make sure you are being trained by a tiler and not a salesman or similar.
And the feedback on tilersforums.co.uk that is kept is that of the members that still post to this day and some have been on a few courses so you can email or PM them to see the pro’s and con’s of each centre they left feedback about, whereas on the forums that own training centre it seems very very suspicious and bias and left by members who have posted only a few times OR by regular members leaving the same replies to course information requests. Both suss.
I’ve met some too, some are genuine, but many more are questionable.
28 August, 2007 at 5:06 pm
Tile Guy
Thanks for responding to the questions posed.
Taking the first point about dedicated tiling schools I don’t accept what you are saying. There may be some ‘jack of all trade’ centres that aren’t any good. You cannot state it as a blanket policy. A multi skill centre can have dedicated tiling trainers and dedicated plumbing trainers and be comprehensive in both areas.
Regarding the feedback on tilersforums.co.uk I’m not saying that it isn’t valid. But the feedback on other forums is just as valid and again the members can be e-mailed regarding any further information required.
What could, in fact, be suss is apparent to me after having only a quick view of the site. Tilersforums.co.uk is funded by advertising from (wait for it) tiling training companies. I don’t see how that forum can claim to be independent given that fact.
8 September, 2007 at 3:16 pm
Darren,
Not a problem.
I understand that there are training centres that are multi-skill jobbies and they are sh*t-hot! But those are usually the NVQ / ConstructionSkills supported centres and not an experienced ex-tiler employing plumbers…. from what I can tell feedback-wise.
Regarding feedback on tilersforums.co.uk… we manage our feedback and allow feedback for ALL training centres to be posted. Yet other forums seem to be VERY self-supportive but give no fair comparison by erasing posts (or not even erasing in all cases… mostly just changing the name of any centre in posts to their own…. hardly legitimate feedback).
Tilersforums.co.uk is funded by sponsors of ANY tiling related business and training centres love the chance to get the coverage so primarily they are training centres but we are not connected to them nor even erase BAD feedback about them. How’s that for a fair forum?
I am really glad that we have bot sides of the story here to chat about. Keep up the fair comments.
8 September, 2007 at 6:19 pm
Tile Guy
Could I ask you to reword your last post. It implies that I am the writer of both the fair posts and the unfair posts that appeared. I’m sure you were addressing my posts and the other posts in one response but it is not reading like that.
10 September, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Certainly Darren you’re right, it does read as you see it.
For the record, I know it wasn’t yourself as running traceroutes on the IP’s and ‘info’ we get when a message is left shows me which AOL customer it was. (And AOL have been notified of the abusive customer too) yet I know you’re not an AOL user, or at least when replying to my articles.
The previous post has been edited… for those reading this now that wonder what Darren is talking about.
Again though, Darren, I am glad that it is obvious from your fair comments that you only want the same as I, good, fair, honest training at honest fair prices. Something which is being addressed by TTA and ConstructionSkills on a regular basis.
14 September, 2007 at 2:41 pm
I am looking for a tiling course wondered what training centre you would recommend Tile Guy?
16 September, 2007 at 10:30 am
hi reader you will find a good course in here…
http://www.tilingcoursescompanies.co.uk/
17 September, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Also checkout the tiling courses post on here. http://www.uktilingnews.co.uk/tiling-courses/
24 September, 2007 at 9:11 pm
Here’s a decent feedback topic on TilersForums.co.uk – http://www.tilersforums.co.uk/tiling-courses/
29 January, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Thanks very much for all this very useful information which will help me in selecting a reputable training company.
9 February, 2008 at 4:33 pm
No problem. It can be hard sometimes trusting the information provided by the training centre’s.
2 March, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Hi,
I was hoping that I could gain some useful advice from the guy’s in the know, Im currently in the RAF and Im looking to leave in 12 months time and I really want to start a career in tiling, I’ve seen courses advertised all over the uk as you have mentioned in the above article but would like some advice on which course to take that will result in me gaining an NVQ or equivilant certificate and roughly how much these courses cost?
many thanks in advance
3 March, 2008 at 11:46 am
Hi, checkout http://www.tilingcoursescompanies.co.uk and http://www.tilersforums.co.uk which should point you in the right direction.
I can’t personally recommend one myself as I’ve not been to any of them.
10 May, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Hi
“I can’t personally recommend one myself as i’ve not been to any of them”
If this is the case how can you make statments like you have in the above article.
I Am the owner of a multi trades centre and find some of your views way off the mark.
What should it matter if there are other trades being taught in the same centre or a centre “across the road” as you put it.
My background is not tiling but our tiling instructors have years of experience! as have all our tutors, and a very carfully vetted not just of there knowledge of their proffesion but also their ability to pass that knowledge on.
These tutors and courses are constantly monitered through our feedback forms that all our trainees fill out and are on file for anyone visiting the centre to view.
Our Plumbing tutors do not teach tiling or visa versa but I do accept that this does happen in some schools.
You also make reference as to why a well paid tiler would want to work for someone else as a tutor!
I can answer this one for you. you have no way of knowing how much any of these centres you are lambasting pay their tutors? or have you thought that maybe some of them are either retired or semi-retired tilers with years and years of experience.
As with anything there are cowboys and I do agree with you 100% regarding all the sales gimmicks and dragging out longer courses however we cannot all be tarred with the same brush.
End of rant!
13 May, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Jason,
I used to run one, and now help more than 20 get business in. And they vary. Some short courses, some long NVQ ones. I know the industry very well.
Hope that clears things up.
Checkout tilersforums.co.uk too. I have hundreds of views saved online for me to work out the ones I don’t know, and for you lot to read before choosing.