is the tiling industry becoming saturated?

[lotar]

I agree, paper isn't everything, but serving a 4 year apprentiship is !!!!! How can any training centre claim to teach tiling in 5 days ???? Like I said before I don't blame the trainees.

Craig.

 

[kilty55]

i dont think any training centre on this earth is claiming they can teach you everything you would learn on a 4 year apprenticeship in 5 days,however i do honestly beleive they teach you the necessary skills to tile to the standards we use here in the uk.i completed a 2 week course and although i have to go back for more training on natural stones,slate etc etc i feel confident enough to go and tile domestic bathrooms and kitchens using ceramics and porcelain tiles for the time being,,this gives me the chance to use and learn different adhesives,,substrates etc and source as much info as my sponge brain will take on here lol. the training centres advertised on here are all good centres it seems,so what is the solution..we have no apprentices? some people dont want training centre tilers? some people complain about polish people taking the work,i may be wrong but surely a qualifeid tiler whos been established for a long time has plenty work,mostly now being word of mouth?:grouphug:

 

[grumpygrouter]

I agree, paper isn't everything, but serving a 4 year apprentiship is !!!!! How can any training centre claim to teach tiling in 5 days ???? Like I said before I don't blame the trainees.

Craig.

These training centres don't teach you how to be a fully skilled, up to speed, know it all, done everything tiler! What they do strive to do is provide the information to let the trainee have a good enough grounding to take on job and complete it, usually to a reasonably good standard. The shorter the course, the less hand practice there is. It is up to the individual to obtain the practice to hone his skills.

I would suggest, though i have not been in the situation myself, that an "apprentice" will tend to do the menial tasks and observe what the "trained" tiler he is working with does. His actual hands on skills will be developed over a long period of time. Does this make him/her a better tiler than someone who has learned the basic technical stuff over 5 days and then practises for all he is worth to obtain a standard good enough to make a living? I would suggest not.

For a person to fund a short course in tiling and then go to the expense of setting up in business, having the pressure of paying everyday bills from his tiling income is a very powerful incentive in my opinion.

Yes, there will always be "better" tilers than other, but not necessarily because they have done an "apprenticeship".

 

[falkirktiler]

I started an apprenticeship when i left school, as a precision engineer and spent the first 18 months of it sweeping the workshop and going to the shop, despite complaining about wanting to engineer!!!. Like someone else said ,what if the guy/girl your supposed to be learning from isn't interested in you, or your prospects. I did a course on Tiling in order to change my dead end career and now work for a very reputable firm who do full bathroom installations, with plumbers, electricians & joiners, all time served, on the books, and if your not up to scratch,with the standard of work they expect, then they are not long in telling you.I don't profess to know all there is to know about tiling, but then again , who does? Is anyone going to say that if you do your apprenticeship that it guarantees that it will cover every situation that you will ever come across in that particular discipline?, or if you find a new problem will you ring up your old journeyman and ask him his advice ?, or would you get your head round it and try to come up with a solution to it on you tod? Every day is a school day for me!