KBBNTG & WEBS receive first ‘Creating Interiors’ course recruits.

In partnership with the KBB National Training Group, students from Big Wood School in Nottingham are the first in the country to take the new Creating Interiors course.

The group of 12 (11 boys and 1 girl) started the course in September and have been working really hard both at school and at WEBS Training (which trains apprentices and adults nationwide for a career the furniture industry) in Beeston.

Students spend one morning a week in school and the following week go to the workshops in Beeston where they are taught the specialist skills needed for fitting kitchens, making furniture and interior design.

The two directors at WEBS Training, Peter Sisson and Maureen Adams, have been very impressed with the attitude and behaviour of the students saying that they were the “best school group they have ever worked with”. And as a result the Creating Interiors course has been mentioned to national employers and interest in the course has spread through Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

The course was written by Dave Gilkerson – a teacher at Big Wood School, and Paul Stringer – a member of staff from WEBS Training, and has been accredited nationally by ABC Awards as equal to 2 GCSE’s grade A*-C.

The course is made up of units of work including: Health & Safety, Designing Kitchens, Bedrooms & Bathrooms, Preparing an Area for Fitting, Assembling & Fitting Flat Pack Units and Finishing an Interior. The students’ first job on the course has been to develop basic tool skills by making a toolbox that they are near to completing, and then they move on to assembling and fitting kitchen units after Easter.

The school is hoping to invest £16,000 in new state-of-the-art interior design software used in the industry so the students can produce 3D fly through designs for kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms. This is part of the school’s commitment to equip its students with as many work-based skills as possible, to enable them to compete in the labour market. The students will complete the course in 2010 when the student who has shown the most potential will be entered for the Young Apprentice of the Year award.

Based in Nottingham, the KBBNTG was estabished in 2004 with the clear objective of developing and maintaining career paths for new recruits, review existing qualifications, standards and estabish a portfolio of courses that meet the training wishes of the industry, focusing on apprenticeships, kitchen & bathroom design, sales, installation and building regulations, all designed to assist with the continual education and development of personnel from new entrants to seasoned professionals.

T: +44 (0)115 984 3912

E: renmascari@kbbntg.com

W: www.kbbntg.com