19 employees from Leaderflush Shapland have been involved in the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers Diploma (GAI) training programme achieving an overall course pass rate of 95%.
The GAI is solely dedicated to promoting the interests of the whole architectural ironmongery industry; the syllabus for the training programme is unique and leads to the UK’s only recognised qualification in ironmongery specification. No other scheme offers such a broad knowledge and understanding of architectural ironmongery.
The course takes 3 years to complete; the first two years dedicated to building up a sound understanding of the ironmongery products available and the third concentrating on the industry’s law and finance together with a comprehensive scheduling exam.
The training was available to all employees with applications coming from various departments including sales, estimating, scheduling, technical, purchasing and the shop floor as well as other areas of the group such as Longden and Fitzpatrick.
Leaderflush Shapland’s Architectural Hardware Manager, David Ratcliffe commented, “As part of the strategy to increase our sales of doorset related ironmongery, we looked for individuals to undertake the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers distance learning course. We were keen to develop our own internal talent to provide sound product knowledge and a technical service to reinforce our commitment to supply a complete doorset solution. Since the course started back in 2007 we have had 19 new diploma holders including 2 award winners.”
Training such as this is a key part of Leaderflush Shapland’s support and development programme which ensures that employees are skilled to do their jobs and offer the best service, information and technical expertise possible.
