Tiling Courses and Plumbing Courses at

This is an email that came in from a delegate half way through college course for 2 years.

Paul

I just wanted to forward a few lines to you to express my thanks for all the hard work you and all your staff (including admin / trades direct) for helping me develop my skills and focus on an exciting and challenging new career.

Being in my late 40’s and in the same career for the past 32yrs (which was predominantly office based for last 10) I decided that if I wanted a change of direction it must happen now or it never would. I therefore decided to focus on plumbing, signing up for a 2year city & guild level 2 course in September 2006. The course, which is modular, is run over 2 evenings a week (1 x theory / 1 x practical) each session being of 3hrs duration.

In the spring of 2007, being part way through the plumbing course, I became aware of PITT, having been tremendously impressed by a tiler from Stafford, Mark Riley, who had tiled our conservatory floor to a very high standard, having been trained a matter of months earlier at the centre.

Having visited PITT and been impressed by the facilities, the training structure and friendly family atmosphere, I put my hand into my pocket and paid for the 2 week wall and tile course. What a good decision. The only problem I had was that having attended this 2 weeks I realised that although tiling I had done in my own home over the years had looked good, maybe I’d been lucky that the tiles had remained on the wall and that water hadn’t come through the ceiling into the kitchen below!!!! (Oh well I’ll do it right in future) I also just wanted more knowledge and experience before going out into the big wide world selling my newly acquired skills. The next step was the advanced course albeit PITT have a ruling that you can’t attend this unless you have attended the wall / floor and 5 day plumbing course. What a dilemma, obviously the investment of the extra weeks plumbing course is quite large in both time and expense, having already invested effort in the C&G course. However, being keen to attend the advanced tiling course, I decided the extra knowledge and experience within the plumbing field would be beneficial.

In October 2007 I attended the PITT plumbing course, being at that time just over half way though the C&G course. What a good week I had. My view on the 5 day course is that it does exactly what it says on the package!!!! John, who is the instructor in the area (and also a qualified electrician and carpenter) has a very relaxed approach to the input, focusing totally on the basics of water plumbing enabling a tiler to be confident in going into a bathroom where he / she can be knowledgeable in discussions with the client surrounding the removal and replacement of toilet / WC / bath. Additional subjects surrounding different hot / cold water and heating systems were also discussed. This, together with instruction on pipe bending and soldering, gave a very good overview of the skills required to remove / replace bathroom fitments, including resituating in the same room.

One of the questions I have been asked is “what is the difference between the 2 courses and given your time again which course would you attend?”

My response to that question is that it all depends on your circumstances, how much time you have available and what you are aiming to achieve. The summary of my thoughts are:

C&G
The course is very informative giving an excellent knowledge base of the industry and going into great depth on specific subjects. This is essential in giving a firm foundation for the individual who wishes to progress his / her career within the plumbing field to higher levels and possibly becoming involved with gas.
My honest view is however that some of the subjects covered in depth, should not be contained within the curriculum and should be treated as specialist subjects, being available for further training if the candidate requires i.e. lead flashing / low carbon steel pipe work.

PITT 5 day course.
The course is a very succinct, practically based course, covering the basics of plumbing and focusing specifically on the safe and efficient removal / replacement of bathroom fitments. I feel this is an excellent course which provides the foundations of knowledge, thereby enabling the candidate to return home and develop / practice the skills learnt and utilise them within the workplace. I’ve made these observations following discussions with other tilers who have attended the course and now feel confident to take the newly acquired skills further.

Just to reiterate a comment I made earlier, I would again like to thank all at PITT for the extremely efficient and friendly way they ALL act and the support they have, and are continuing to give me in this challenging period.

Malc