Even before the demise of the Timber Trade Training Association (TTTA) a few years back, there was a gap in timber industry training, not just for younger entrants, but also for older people who never had formalised training about the industry they worked in. And training has never been so important as it is now, with a plethora of technicalities and European rules increasingly quoted by specifiers and wood products users.
My everyday work as a consultant brings me into contact with people of all levels of skill and experience and I know that those with a bit more knowledge of their products are far better sales people for wood. They sell more goods for their company and greatly enhance timber’s reputation by exuding confidence in the things they talk about with customers. Take it from me; training is vital tool for staying ahead of the competition. And the UK timber trade is still not pushing that idea strongly enough!
The IWSc is ideally placed to step in where the TTTA dropped out, and our recently launched Foundation Course has met with such success because it fills the industry’s basic training need perfectly.
What the trade needs now is a lot more of this essential product knowledge for everyone!
That is where Jim Lumsden, who has just taken over from David Woodbridge as IWSc director, comes in. His job is to expand the Institute’s role in the trade and to further develop the Foundation Course. He also has the key role of pushing the Institute’s boundaries beyond the traditional trade audience and into the realms of the specifiers and users of wood products: your customers.
We at the Institute also need to get the message across that we are not a lot of scientific “boffins” detached from the realities of commercial life. Driving that message home will allow all of us to capitalise on the newly-rediscovered strengths which come from getting the right stuff – training – and will enable the IWSc to help the trade and its customers get the very best from wood.
