Tiling is a skilled job. Learning to be a tiler opens up exciting opportunities for young people looking for work.

Many people in Zambia tile their houses, rather than using carpets. As well as bathrooms, kitchens and patios, floors in living rooms and bedrooms are often tiled. All this means there are plenty of opportunities for tilers to find work in towns and cities across the country.

However tiling jobs are often relatively small. To maximise work opportunities for our trainees, we have expanded the scope of our entry-level Tiling course to include modular paving. This is a popular method of covering drives, pavements, paths and more. Both disciplines require high attention to detail.

23 young adults, including 7 women, were enrolled onto the new Tiling and Paving course at the end of May 2023. All our training courses include Life Skills training, plus a module on Health & Safety. In addition, these trainees learnt about:

• Using and looking after tools and equipment
• Preparing materials and floor/wall surfaces
• Setting out, cutting and fixing tiles
• Finishing

Trainee Brenda practises modular paving ready for her assessment

Continual improvement

The world of work is changing rapidly and it is vital that skills training keeps pace with employers’ needs. Being more multi-skilled is an important lesson we have learned from both employers and graduates of our Training into Work programme, most of whom are self-employed. With more than one livelihood option, you are more likely to find work.

As a result, we have also revised our core entry-level Brick and Blocklaying course. This is now entry-level Construction Trades Multi-skills. Course content has been expanded to cover brick and blocklaying, plastering, rendering and concrete work.

Our entry-level Rough Carpentry course has also been revised and expanded, and is now entry-level Rough Carpentry and Steel Fixing.

We will be tracking how our latest graduates are getting on through our next Impact Study, due to take place in October 2023.