Hi,
I did the 4wk course in Warrington back in Sept, being a plasterer I found I was passing work on so I thought I'd do a course and see if it was for me.
I have to say that I found it very useful, the knowledge of the tutors was immense, if there was something that was not understood you only had to ask and time was taken to explain (for some..in simper terms).
Like anything it's not neccesarily the training that's not upto scratch, it could be he/she is not upto what they are trying to do, some people on my course would never be a tiler as long as they had a hole in their rear.
I was fortunate, it was for me, I left the course and my first job was a 50m2 ground floor of a house, the job was in 450mm ceramic with loose wire undertile heating onto backerboard. Remembered my training, took my time and got stuck in with twitching ar*e, the job turned out very well, all good cuts it ran from room to room perfectly. That first job paid for my course and all my tools that I had purchased and left some beer money.
I know I wouldn't have even known where to start on that job had it not been for the training I received, now I'm running a succesful business in plastering and tiling.

As I said though it is not just down to the training, the person being trained has a lot to do with any success.

Sorry for boring you all.

Mark.

Completed the 2 week course last year. Taught all the basic information such as how to use adhesives and setting out but felt there was too much downtime in the classroom it should have been up to you if you wished to attend. Buisness planning was ok as well as tips on how too sell yourself but I thought friday should have been a full day when you have paid almost a grand for 2 weeks. Anybody thinking of giving it a go it is a course worth considering.

Looks like you really learnt alot on the course mark...
i went on the same course and more than half of the blokes were moaning at the amount of time we had on our projects and that they felt it wasn't worth the money...
not saying i didn't learn anything.. far from it...just thought it was very basic stuff really...
maybe they were cramming to much information all in one go...fair play to them ..they can only get better eh...
i've heard beano has left ...they should of paid him double what he was getting ..that guy knew his stuff only wsh i got him ...no offence to chris she was very helpfull ..in fact the staff were brilliant just dissapointed with the course itself
steve

Hi Steve,
yeah beano has gone, some tiler that guy was, the best of it is the fact that he only did the course a few months earlier.
When did you do your course then steve ? To be honest there where 3 lads on my course that will never make it as tilers while they had a hole in their ar*e, so I would guess they wouldn't have thought it wasnn't worth the money.
I had Chris as my main tutor but I also made use of Tony and Beano to see how differently things were done.
Had you done any tiling before going on the course ?

only started tiling after i finished the course devo,
friends and family...then...lucky for me one of the friends plumber saw my tiling and got me my first customer...not got many comtacts as yet..just taking my time for the first year getting extra contacts along the way...i've managed to get another contact who wants his kitchen and bathroom doing..and i know this guy knows alot of tradesman ...so it's another chance to show my work...
Gaz from tops has 20 odd years in tiling and i asked him to help me out with a kitchen job (which i have posted in the gallery)...
and for abit of moral support ...thing is with me.. not a very confident person...abit of a worrier too...lol
watching gaz get on with the job and how he handled the customer gave me some insight on how to go about things..
some great tips from him too... you just can't beat experience..
hate being a newbie tiler ..lol

steve

Pretty much the same for me mate, completed the course in Feb after deciding on a career change. 6 months later business is slowly building up after a scary start when I thought I wouldn't get enough jobs to pay the bills
How are you getting most of your work... recommends, advertising? I think my only complaint about PTS was their advice on getting your name known, they advised mailing business cards which I found to be a complete waste of time. I gave up after mailing 2000 cards and getting 1 phone call. The tilersinyourarea website has generated 3 calls in 6 months. Best thing I did was to advertise in my local paper, business has been booming ever since. Also listed in Yellow Pages & Thompson Local.
Good luck anyway mate, I still get a bit nervous when I start a new job but relax as soon as the first tile goes down. The satisfaction of doing a good job and seeing a customer happy is more rewarding than working in a factory for 45 hours a week, so glad I got out of it!

hiya im new just wanted to say ive just finished the corse at p.t.s warrington thut the corses was great loved it alot to take in at first but ya get there eh ok later people!!

I did my 4 week course dec 06. one year on things are going pretty good thanks to chris and beano. they are very professional in the way they teach you everything you need to know to get a successful buisness up and running, plus a fair few laugths on the way. then a bit of hard work and experience you gain on the job keeps your buisness running id recomend this coures to just about anyone. obviously some people just cannot be taught anything, and these people should steer clear.

i re trained in warrington march 06,and in general found the course very good,instructers-beano & chris etc were very helpful & only too willing to pass on their knowledge & experience.I also found the after course help very useful,with Tony,While up in warrington one time,actually came to manchester one night,to look at a slate job with me and and help me work out a quote.I would recommend this course to anyone who wants a stepping stone into the tiling industry.

I did a 4 week course in Nov/Dec '07.

I found the course extremely good and it met all my expectations. The trainers were friendly and very helpful too.

The course was hands on from the start as you were allocated your own bay and after a brief instruction before each new excercise from basic techniques to more comlex designs, you were left to get on with it.
The only thing was because of the short timescale, you didn't get to finish all the excercises.

The course also covered business start-up.

There were also demonstrations from the likes of Weber and Armeg.

Recommended.