I may well of been that bricky that showed you some tiling Simon? But I think I finished to start my Contracts Managers job building retail stores before then.
I’ve been in construction from an age of 15, and have C&G old skool Advanced Craft in Brickwork and I’m not bad at a few other trades ie Plumbing, Electrics etc (I’m a shocking chippy though lol). I currently build large retail stores around the UK ie Tesco, Asda, M&S, Morrison etc. I have a team of 40+ tradesmen and we complete many elements of these projects ie the work spans many trades. Just to make things crystal clear for everyone Access Training Wales, despite having many fun times their with the trainees & staff, it is probably one of the worse training centres I have ever seen and every instructor that started there (during my time) has since quit!
Talk about wing and a prayer! It wasn’t great to teach there because the facilities were shocking and the level of instruction for the money paid was terrible. They started by taking in kids that had been kicked out of school and then eventually started mixing those with well respected Army personnel. It was terrible, safety also was non existent and the last straw for me was when the managers tried to force me to teach brickwork to 12 – 13yrs olds with no safety equipment – girls wanting to lay bricks in flip flops!
I only ever started training to give something back, but during my time in training and seeing other training schools as well as the rape of the apprenticeship system and NVQ nonsense instead of real basic and advanced craft, I realised everything had gone corrupt and it was all about money. It’s a bit like the banking ads with the fat man, offer everything, snag them, take the coin and then teach them sod all. Unfortunately, when your pushing for better and the management claim that as the money comes in then we’ll have better facilities you tend to stick with it, but all that really happened is you got used to poorer and poorer conditions.
I taught some good guys there and hopefully it gave them enough knowledge to get on site with someone who knows what they are doing and can survive and begin learning for real – ie a head start – My goal was always to provide them with enough skill to not get sacked by 10am and to hold down their job and develop. Based on the facilities, lack of materials, corrupt management etc there was nothing else you could give the trainee.
At best, you may learn to plaster at this place, and lay a few bricks but for the rest it’s a total farce and nothing but a rip off. Probably the worst one out of all of them is the tiling because the materials cost is higher for the training provider. You will learn nothing about tiling onto different surfaces, different adhesives and their purposes, complex cutting, burying pipe work correctly, laying different thickness tiles on the same wall ie mosaic patterns in a panel, you’ll be basically tiling about 2m square if your lucky around a sink – nothing you could not learn or do at home and a sheet of plywood!
With all sincerity, I would avoid this place like the plague, and if you wish to get onsite and make a career out of it, forget training centres and take a job and work for free if necessary with a professional tiler, get yourself to college! If you must use a training centre, then it is essential that you visit the premise, find out exactly where you will be working, and ask to be able to call down for half a day to watch people work. Pay with a credit card if possible and get a full prospectus of what you will be taught, then if your not taught that issue a charge back on the credit card and get a refund. Training in the UK has gone to the dogs – full stop, shop around and don’t get stung!
