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Geberit Ltd. has a high reputation for its commitment to training and customer education with a high investment in training facilities at its head office in Aylesford. PHPI asked Geberit Training Manager Ian Crickmore to review Geberit’s approach to training of today’s plumbers and installers. He says:-
Firstly, we believe in the vitally important role of training as a means of ensuring our products are understood, specified and properly installed. To this end considerable investment has been made in establishing a state-of-the-art training centre which recognises the changing face of the building industry and can demonstrate and advise on products and practices now accepted under the latest Water Regulations.
Training is a valuable asset to installers and plumbers, showing them the best way to learn about new products, techniques and practices rather than gaining the knowledge the hard way – on your own and learning by mistakes which can be costly as well as frustrating. Training gets the go-ahead plumber into latest technology quickly and confidently and these advances do save time and effort, helping to increase margins in a highly competitive marketplace.
Time spent training is NOT time lost, it is knowledge gained which delivers benefits over the long term. The installer benefits from the collective knowledge and wisdom of others and learns the most efficient and effective way to use and install products and about the products themselves. Training ensures jobs are completed more quickly, to a higher standard and with less wastage or call backs.
Geberit’s showroom and training centre at Aylesford is ample evidence of the company’s commitment to the development of plumbing professionals. The centrepiece of the showroom is a unique hydraulic tower which includes the complete range of Geberit products from floor to ceiling. All are fully working with a network of see through pipes and fittings to show exactly how systems react to different conditions. The tower demonstrates applications from syphonic roof drainage to HDPE drainage, and Mepla water supply work. The tower also demonstrates correct and incorrect plumbing practices and can be incorporated into drainage design courses. Facilities also include customer seminar rooms for presentations and theoretical sessions and a workshop area where practical installations can be practised. Courses can also be run at customers/installers premises.
Over 900 participants attended Geberit’s facilities at Aylesford last year, which were refurbished and extended in 2002. A significantly higher throughput is planned for 2004.
It has been the company’s philosophy to provide free of charge training on soil, waste and rainwater and underground drainage products for over 30 years. Since 1999, Geberit has provided training on behind the wall sanitary systems, cisterns, infrared washroom technology, flushing technology, potable water systems, syphonic rainwater systems and HDPE drainage systems in the UK.
More and more installers and plumbers are realising that training can be a valuable asset and manufacturers must match the participants needs to the courses provided. And the Geberit philosophy includes not only a range of several base courses but also tailor-made courses to customers needs mixing and matching ideas and formats to ensure that the customer goes away with the techniques and know-how required as well as having made good contacts with people who they can call on for further information in due course should they so desire.
The aim is to educate the trade on the company’s products, to explain the features, benefits and innovations in these products, to demonstrate how they are correctly installed and to introduce installers to the range of technical support services covering the whole of an installation. In addition participants on training courses are updated on any relevant Regulation changes to ensure best practice is supplied at all times. Communicating information through training ensures that installers delight their customers with jobs being completed on time to a high standard and with less call back – all things that can have a significant effect on the installers overall profit margin for a job.
Looking forward to 2004 we hope to further improve and refine our training to ensure that each course is totally relevant to the participants and offering a wider range of subjects to cover new and revised Building Regulations which were introduced in 2003.
We firmly believe in the importance of training and its value to the industry as a whole and to the participants in particular.
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