A BRIGHT FUTURE F. Ball and Co. Ltd. has helped a young flooring apprentice become the
first graduate of a school for children with special needs and learning difficulties in Surrey to enter the world of work.
After being inspired by seeing a flooring installation at his school, Dan Holland, 16, was offered work experience, which has led to a full-time role as a flooring contractor. His training included learning about all aspects of subfloor preparation and floorcovering installation by attending a free training course at F. Ball’s purpose-built facility at its Staffordshire headquarters.
Products donated by F. Ball were used to install floorcoverings at Woodfield Secondary School. After seeing the installation first-hand, Dan approached the project’s contractor, Period Flooring, expressing a desire to pursue a career as a flooring contractor, and was met with an offer of work experience. His work at the natural flooring specialists afforded him the opportunity to learn all about the flooring trade, including natural and wood flooring and fitting and installing carpet.
Dan’s dream of becoming a flooring contractor came true when, upon finishing school in summer 2019, the offer was extended to a trainee position in the team, making him the first student of his school to obtain a permanent, full-time job.
As part of his induction, he attended a specially tailored course on subfloor preparation and adhesive selection at F. Ball’s Staffordshire headquarters. The company provides free training courses for flooring contractors at its dedicated state-of-the-art training facility. These are delivered by experts from the manufacturer’s technical department, ensuring that they cover the latest advancements in adhesive and levelling compound technology. Dan says he particularly enjoyed getting to apply different F. Ball products.
10 | SPOTLIGHT
Although not looking to recruit, bosses were so impressed by Dan’s innate talent and passion for his work, which allowed him to excel in his favourite part of the job, carpentry, that they decided to create a role especially for him.
Now looking forward to celebrating his one-year work anniversary, he describes his trade as a good one because he enjoys being able to put a smile on customers’ faces.
Commenting on Dan’s role in the team, Martin Murray, Managing Director at Period Flooring, said: “We believe everybody deserves a chance to build a career and earn their own money. There’s only so much you can learn from college, and we wanted to provide Dan with a real, on-the-job learning experience and give him an opportunity he might not otherwise have had.
“Dan has been keen from the off; polite, hardworking and reliable, and our customers love him – he already ticks all of the boxes of an ideal fitter and we’ll continue to work with him to build his skills and expertise.
“His learning has been significantly enhanced by attending one of F. Ball’s free training courses. We use F. Ball products because they’re fitter-friendly, so we continually send all our staff on their induction and refresher courses to support their knowledge. The training team tailored the course for Dan to accommodate his needs, enabling him to still be hands-on, so the learning was meaningful to him.”
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