Alpine Tiling Closure, But Left With No Nvq.

[jonrkirk]

Hello there,
As you are all aware, sadly Gary from Alpine tiling died last year. I paid for and completed a 6week intensive course at the company which was ment to be the stepping stone to me getting a NVQ qualification. During the course we covered lots of different areas of tiling which Gary signed me off and took photos as proof, as he was a NVQ assesser. The plan was once i had completed the course a external assesor would visit me on various sites and sign me off as compitent. But due to the closure of alpine tiling i never recieved any further comunication for my NVQ. I paid alot of money for the course but have got nothing to show for it apart from the knowledge that gary pasted on to me. Could anyone give me advice on how i should go about completing the NVQ.
many thanks

 

[The D]

Are you working as a tiler now or was you working as a tiler at the time ether for your self on domestic jobs or for a firm on site. And was the pics of work you did on site or was they in the centre??

 

[jonrkirk]

Thanks for the reply, i was just starting out when i was doing the course. The photos that i have are from when i was doing the course. The photos consist of what Gary said are all the criteria for the NVQ. Since i finished the course, i have set up my own bussiness and have been doing domestic work as well as site. During which time i have been taking photos to build up my portfolio.

 

[jonrkirk]

Hi deanotile,
thanks for the reply. When i was taking the course, i was just starting out. Since then i have started up my own bussiness as a self employed tiler. The photos that i have which were taken by gary were in the classroom. They were what Gary told me were all the criteria fo me to achieve my NVQ. Since then i have been doing domestic and site work. During this time i have been taking photos of my work to build a portfolio.
sorry for the late reply. I did reply yesterday but did not seem to go through.

 

[jonrkirk]

Hey deanotile, Third time lucky with a reply. tried for the last 2 days with no luck. Anyway, I was just starting out when i was doing the course. The photos i have are off all the work i done in the class room. Gary said they were all the criteria that i need for my NVQ. Since then i have started my own business as a self employed tiler and have been doing domestic and site work. During this time i have been taking photos off my work for my portfolio.

 

[The D]

Hi I’m not sure why he would have told you that as it is my understanding that non of the evidence for the NVQ can be simulated it all has to be work based evidence. Did he give you an enrolment number or any paper work to say you are registered on the NVQ. Also is it possible to post some of the pics you have and I may be able to give you some advice on weather they can be used as evidence.

 

[jonrkirk]

He didn't say that this was all i would need to get my NVQ. Gary said that an external assessor will also visit me on the job when i start working.. I wasn't given any enrolement number or paperwork of registration.
These are the photos, but they are pretty poor quality as i have not got a scanner. so i have had to take photos of photos

View attachment 50523 View attachment 50524 View attachment 50525 View attachment 50526 View attachment 50527 View attachment 50528 View attachment 50529 View attachment 50530 View attachment 50531 View attachment 50532

the next picture is travertine tiles which layed, sealed, grouted, sealed again and then polished


Victorian flooring



and last of all we had to perform the task that Gary called the snake. Which was to get us to use all our skills that we had learnt during the course with tile laying and cutting


I also done some tanking during the course. But i don't have any photos of that.

 

[The D]

i am Sorry to say that non of the pics are any good as evidence for an NVQ portfolio the pis are all of you standing or sitting next to some tiling there is no evidence there to assess. You need pics of you actually working on a wall or floor, and all the work is in a training centre the pics that you need are of actual jobs you have done out in the world. My advice to you is go and talk to a college that dose tiling and get yourself enrolled on an NVQ and start to gather evidence that this is your day to day job.

The evidence will need to paint a picture for the assessor he will need to see that the work is genuinely yours and it covers the all the relevant criteria. It is no good having a pic of a bath wall with a nice pattern on it if the unit calls for evidence of you tiling around a window.

To be honest you really need to see the units that need to be covered for an NVQ then you will understand how much more evidence you need to produce.

 

[The D]

the type of pics you will need are
View attachment 50629 View attachment 50630 View attachment 50631 View attachment 50632 View attachment 50633 View attachment 50634 View attachment 50635 View attachment 50636 View attachment 50637

 

[Eduardo]

should really smoke for NVQ?:lol:

 

[The D]

should really smoke for NVQ?:lol:

I always said I could not work without a *** hanging out my mouth and it has been all down hill since he got a new job. :lol::lol:

 

[jonrkirk]

Cheers for the replies deanotile. You have been very helpful. I am going to have to look in to this a bit more as I can't just walk away from the amount of money that I spent on the course. I think I will try and contact someone from NVQ office (if there is such a thing) and see if there is any record of me on there system and take it from there. Thanks also for the photos.

 

[The D]

Oliver Farrell 07771 542 431.
Specialist Training Adviser for Construction Skills
may be a place to start Or at lest he may be able to tell you where to start looking.

 

[jonrkirk]

That's excellent, thanks a lot :-D

 

[The D]

Just out of interest what did you pay and how long was your course ??

 

[jonrkirk]

I paid £1700 for a five week course.

 

[Max@ableskills]

Everything that deanotile has said is correct. ALL evidence required to gain your NVQ must be work based and not simulated.

I feel there is a bit of confusion between simulated evidence and work based evidence sometimes.

The photos that you have posted are from your training course which are usually undertaken at a training centre or sometimes a college.

These photos are from a simulated environment so cannot be used as evidence against your NVQ.

The photos of you are of tiling taken from your training course.

To gain your NVQ my suggestion would be to go onto the cskills website and look under qualifications and search for QUA850 which is NVQ level 2 wall and floor tiling certificate.

There should be a search facility telling you where your nearest centre/college is that deliver this qualification.

Hope this helps and good luck

 

[The D]

I must say that from an assessment point of view the pics as they are even if they was site based are not usable evidence as he is just stood next to some tiling there is nothing to lead the assessor to believe it is his work. And if you study the pics some things start to pop out that may make an assessor require further evidence.

Even site based evidence has to hit the criteria and be shown to be authentic.

 

[jonrkirk]

I appreciate that none of the photos can prove that I actually did the work, but I worked really hard on all of the projects that were given to me. Just so that I can learn from this experience could you let me know what things you have picked up on in the photos.

 

[The D]

I'm not knocking your work at all in fact the opposite.
You have to start thinking about the pics you will be taking to offer as evidence.
The things i would pick up on in the pics you have posed are more to do with what you are wearing than your tiling.
in 1,6 and 12 you have on a red t shirt in 2,7 and 8 you have a black one on in 5 and 13 it is white and you have protective glasses on your head.
For me it is things like that that say the pic was staged as you did not do all of that in one day and if it was staged was it even your work.
you have to make the assessor have no doubt in his mind that the work in the pic is yours where ever you can have pics of prep work and setting out. To an assessor a pic of a half don job with you fixing a tile or spreading the adhesive is worth more than a pic of a lovely finished job and you stood next to it.

 

[White Room]

Your now the fashon guru Dean:lol:

 

[The D]

Your now the fashon guru Dean:lol:

now if your t shirt was pink you would passssss :lol:

 

[The D]

No I am just pointing out that it looks like those pcs was took on the same day or two or three of them was and then another two or three next time and that makes me doubt the evidence so I would have to ask for more and in order to complete the NVQ quickly with the minimum fuss the evidence needs to be beyond question. cover all the criteria you can in one pic rather than having to keep taking pics of the same task.

As I have said I am not knocking him just trying to help him see things from an assessment prospective.

 

[jonrkirk]

All the photos were taken over the 5 week course. And i haven't uploaded them in the correct order in which the work was done. And as for the t-shirts, i only have a few old t-shirts which i washed and used on different days in the week. I'm sure that you are not questioning whether i did the work and just pointing out how an a NVQ assessor might see it. But i thought i would explain a reasoning to your questions for other people reading this thread.

 

[jonrkirk]

I have been in contact with City and Guilds and today they have confirmed via email that I am no where on there system. But what concerns me the most, is that they have got no records of Gary Sheffield or Alpine Tiling as a recognized provider or assessor of City and guilds. This news has infuriated me. I don't want Tilers Forum to take this the wrong way. But I first heard about Alpine through this forum and felt as it was a Sponsor of the web site it would be a reputable company. I think this is a great web site and very helpful in many ways. But they should in future make sure that there sponsors are the real deal and not some company just trying to get your money.

 

[Max@ableskills]

I have been in contact with City and Guilds and today they have confirmed via email that I am no where on there system. But what concerns me the most, is that they have got no records of Gary Sheffield or Alpine Tiling as a recognized provider or assessor of City and guilds. This news has infuriated me. I don't want Tilers Forum to take this the wrong way. But I first heard about Alpine through this forum and felt as it was a Sponsor of the web site it would be a reputable company. I think this is a great web site and very helpful in many ways. But they should in future make sure that there sponsors are the real deal and not some company just trying to get your money.

If you were registered onto an NVQ it would have been with cskills (part of the citb) not city and guilds. Cskills is an alliance with city and guilds that will cease on 18th July 2013. At present city and guilds do not have anything to do with wall and floor tiling NVQs although this will change in the very near future.

So i would contact cskills and explain your situation to them.

Let us know how you get on

 

[jonrkirk]

Hi Max, and thanks for joining in on the thread. This afternoon I contacted C-skills and yet again it has led me to a dead end. They told me that they have got no record of me, Gary Sheffield or Alpine tiling on there system. I don't like to speak badly of the dead. But i feel really let down by Gary as he came across as a really nice and genuine guy or maybe I am just to much of a trusting person and should be more careful.
An expensive lesson:frown5:

 

[The D]

I called Oliver from C skills my self today to see if he could find out what was going on but he said the same thing Alpine was not an approved centre.

I know you are feeling a bit had in the bag at the moment but the money you have paid was in line with what people are paying for basic training and that is what you got.

The problem as I see it is that private centres should be stopped from advertising there (training courses) as a root to the NVQ qualification. It is confusing and misleading. People are being led to believe they can go from being a novice and do a six week tiling course and they will get an NVQ2 this is untrue no mater how much spin is put on it.

There was a centre a few year back that was doing this but they was shut down and investigated for fraud.

 

[jonrkirk]

I called Oliver from C skills my self today to see if he could find out what was going on but he said the same thing Alpine was not an approved centre.

I know you are feeling a bit had in the bag at the moment but the money you have paid was in line with what people are paying for basic training and that is what you got.

The problem as I see it is that private centres should be stopped from advertising there (training courses) as a root to the NVQ qualification. It is confusing and misleading. People are being led to believe they can go from being a novice and do a six week tiling course and they will get an NVQ2 this is untrue no mater how much spin is put on it.

There was a centre a few year back that was doing this but they was shut down and investigated for fraud.

Deanotile I really appreciate it, how much you have gone out of your way to help. Just goes to show that there are still some decent people out there.

 

[Max@ableskills]

Hi Max, and thanks for joining in on the thread. This afternoon I contacted C-skills and yet again it has led me to a dead end. They told me that they have got no record of me, Gary Sheffield or Alpine tiling on there system. I don't like to speak badly of the dead. But i feel really let down by Gary as he came across as a really nice and genuine guy or maybe I am just to much of a trusting person and should be more careful.
An expensive lesson:frown5:

Sorry to hear that.

In the past we have had a few former trainees from alpine here to gain the nvq which tells me that it was probably something that they never offered.

One of the guys (who is a forum member) gained his NVQ via the EWPA route as he could demonstrate that he had been working within the industry for over 5 years.