Spec Finish

Apprentices 18 www.thefis.org Errigal Training Academy workshop who employ young people should be actively involved in their training and that partitioning, ceiling, and drywall finishers need to be recognised occupations held in the same regard as bricklaying and carpentry. By delivering training ourselves we ensure that experienced dryliners are teaching our apprentices, and our instructors and tutors have a deep knowledge of the trade and industry. College timetables often do not coincide with organisational, or site needs and, therefore, we are able to tailor our apprenticeship delivery to match the needs of Errigal and our customers. Did you get any help with resources or finances? Working closely with local authorities and technical colleges, we established a traineeship in Republic of Ireland, which funded the tutors and the exams. We persisted with this for two years but a lack of understanding of our industry and its needs made the arrangement unsustainable. During 2016 we established a relationship with the technical colleges in Northern Ireland and, despite valiant efforts from the colleges to deliver the NVQ level 2 Diploma in Interior Systems (they provided facilities and funding for tuition and exams for the off-site element of the course) this too became unsustainable. Colleges found it difficult to retain individuals and the demands of construction work made it unmanageable for them to amalgamate groups; the size of the facility required to provide training for interiors and finishes didn’t justify their investment. We currently self-fund our programmes. We know that funding is available under the new apprenticeship scheme and we believe our industry should lobby for the majority of funds to be allocated directly to the individual apprentice. We would welcome engagement with the construction industry bodies and government representatives to investigate this. We have invested heavily in training over the past five years and will continue to allocate 1% of our company turnover (projected turnover 2021 is currently £120m) annually for all training. Our industry moves at such a fast pace so any and all funding needs to be made more readily available, publicised and accessible to support employers who are helping to create both apprenticeship and training opportunities. How many people does the delivery of Errigal’s training involve and did they require any training and qualifications? A successful training programme requires acceptance and involvement of everybody in the company and continuous support and encouragement is needed for everyone. We currently have two full-time qualified tutors and two part-time vocational assessors. Our full-time training manager looks after the pastoral needs of our apprentices and we have a part-time internal quality assurer. Our carefully selected tutors have been with the company for over 10 years and spent time on the tools before progressing to site and project management. For us, there are two key elements to being a successful tutor: 1. Full knowledge of the occupation, the systems, the performance and how a site runs; and 2. An ability to teach young people, engage with them, encourage them and listen to them. We had to invest in our guys to ensure they had all the qualifications necessary to deliver the training to the standards required, and from a business and industry perspective, this was possibly the most important investment of all. What occupations are you working to qualify? It is important to remember that there are so many different areas of expertise within the finishes and interiors sector, and we must allow each apprentice the time and opportunity to find their preferred skill. The main areas of focus over the first two years are to ensure the apprentices develop their understanding of the performance of the systems, the materials and plant and equipment in the following areas: • metal stud partitioning; • plasterboard ceilings; • suspended ceilings; • partitions; • encasements and bulkheads; • tape and jointing; • skim finish; and • spray finish. How do you identify the people you want to invest in and train? The Errigal selection process has been developed over years, we originally Errigal Training Academy classroom