Tiling training course

[addey]

Hi

I've just spoken to a friend who has handed in his notice at his current job and has decided he would like to pursue a career in tiling.

Can anyone recommend any training courses (ideally in the South-East)? He is really looking for something fairly intensive and condensed (he will be travelling over from the Channel Islands and would prefer to do it all in one go, rather than, for example, over a number of weekends)

thanks in advance!

addey

 

[jefoss]

might be a better idea to go work for a tiling company, youd be suprised how much better people who learn that way are than these "intensive" training courses.

those courses (imo) are a good way to learn the basics but not great for someone to do one then going out advertising and pretending to be a pro tiler... it WILL end in tears.

whereas with an established firm you learn the ins and outs and get a wealth of experience, these guys know what they are doing and youll learn a lot more and be more hands on.

as i said its just my opinion but ive seen all kinds of "tilers" in the past and the best ones were the ones that learned from within established companys.

hope this helps.

ramble over

 

[vv2806]

He can start with reading the tiling sticky and the archive posts. Then if he starts working in a tiling company, he would have an idea if they are good or not. Unfortunately as some post here show, there are some tilers who do bogus jobs.

 

[jctilingservices]

as stated in the previous replies, tell your friend to get a job with a tiling company, its the best way, possibly he could even get an " in house apprenticeship) sorry dont know his age
A tiling course would learn him the basics for ceramics but certainly would not cover all aspects of tiling. If he completed this course then went self employed as a tiler i can foresee lots of problems, headaches and stress for him in the future

 

[geraint]

he could do the comprehensive 5 day course.... will be fully trained then....

 

[jctilingservices]

he could do the comprehensive 5 day course.... will be fully trained then....

 

[tictic]

Hi

I've just spoken to a friend who has handed in his notice at his current job and has decided he would like to pursue a career in tiling.

Can anyone recommend any training courses (ideally in the South-East)? He is really looking for something fairly intensive and condensed (he will be travelling over from the Channel Islands and would prefer to do it all in one go, rather than, for example, over a number of weekends)

thanks in advance!

addey

your friend has picked a very bad time to change career mate...

there are a lot off good.. tile fixers/plumbers/wood butchers/sparks etc out there trying to get work and a lot off these guys have been in the trades for a very long time...

as for courses,..well i dont know much about these...

 

[lancenotalot]

My mate did a 4 week course in plumbing,came away with a qual,started trading.We did a lot of bathroom refits together.Considering he was qualified he struggled through for about 18 months and then packed in.

Im now in my third year training for plumbing(only water)
1st year basic plumbing then 2 years nvq 2/tech cert

I guess what Im trying to say is that trying to cram what takes some trades years to aquire into a few weeks won't work for everyone,in fact won't work for most.

I do 2 evenings a week and also have to squeeze in the odd days to do my bay fittings (bathroom,cloakroom,airing cupboard)

When I started tiling I spent the first month fetching,carrying,mixing adhesive etc for a guy who had been doing it 38 years.

There is no substitute for experience.

 

[jctilingservices]

My mate did a 4 week course in plumbing,came away with a qual,started trading.We did a lot of bathroom refits together.Considering he was qualified he struggled through for about 18 months and then packed in.

Im now in my third year training for plumbing(only water)
1st year basic plumbing then 2 years nvq 2/tech cert

I guess what Im trying to say is that trying to cram what takes some trades years to aquire into a few weeks won't work for everyone,in fact won't work for most.

I do 2 evenings a week and also have to squeeze in the odd days to do my bay fittings (bathroom,cloakroom,airing cupboard)

When I started tiling I spent the first month fetching,carrying,mixing adhesive etc for a guy who had been doing it 38 years.

There is no substitute for experience.

that was very well put mate, i congratulate you on not taking the easy 4 week courses to become a plumber. you have done it the correct way

 

[addey]

Thank you all for your replies - i have to admit i'd kind of forgotten that i'd posted this till today!

As i suspected it sounds like a course isn't necessarily the best option. However, my friend is in the Channel Islands where the opportunity to work with an experienced tiler is pretty slim! This is partly why he is considering going in this direction as a career - he has spotted a potential gap in the market. Obviously he will pretty quickly fall out of that gap if he turns out to be a rubbish tiler!

In reply to tictic who mentioned it was a bad time to change career, bear in mind that Guernsey has an unemployment level of less than 0.25% so is a bit insulated from the UK's problems

I will maybe suggest that he tries speaking to some local tilers and see if there are any opportunities to "learn on the job"

 

[tictic]

think i may move over there then mate,if thats the unemployment rate...

hope your mate gets something sorted..

tell him...
1. its all in the preperation for tile fixing.

2. take his time,it aint a race when it comes to tiling.

 

[Artisantiling]

Hi all
I am a tiler in Guernsey and it is not easy to get into tiling over hear. The is only 1 larger company that I would trust to teach you the proper way of tiling. There are 1 or 2 other companies but I spent alot of my time fixing there mistakes. The only problem is the best company (Channel Island Ceramics) is very hard to get into because people get trained up and then become self employed (me being one of them).
The only way of learning is to speak to rulers and try and work spare time for them for little or for free. With small one man rulers time is money so training cost them time. Once they see some progress and they think you are becoming worth some money then they might offer you a full time job.

Sorry it sounds harsh but I've tought people before and it's very time consuming.
The courses in England are ok but so I hear they teach you the basics so you cannot go on a course and come back and say I'm a tiler. Being a small island your work comes from word of mouth and it takes a long time to get a good reputation. But not long to get a bad one.

If you want he can grap my phone number from Capelles building stores and I'll try and help him out

The only advice I can give you is to try

 

[Artisantiling]

Sorry about spelling above

Rulers= tilers
Grap= grab

And forget the last line. Ha