Having worked my way through the informal ranks of the flooring industry here in South Africa, it has always been blatantly evident the lack of professional flooring educational structures available. This is changing slowly but much still needs to be done and quickly.
With Africa being so entrepreneurial and with such a high percentage of the labour-force being below the poverty line, our trades are generally trained on the job-site and allowed to work their way through the internal ranks much the same way as I did. We learn on the job as best as we can and move forward chasing ever bigger projects and bigger paycheques.
Unfortunately, this career evolution does not always pass on all of the theoretical and deeper understanding of the chosen trade and product group. This is more often than not where the majority of failures occur in that five-percentile variation from one job site to another. Most often at the cost of the end consumer or small business employer.
With Flooring Africa aspiring to fill this gap and provide free technical flooring modules, the implementation of this theoretical knowledge alongside the existing practical exposure will hopefully elevate this entire game and #savefloors
Like Jo Brom from Village Timber (a solid wood flooring expert) recently stated in our latest YouTube vlog; “having the knowledge to guarantee perfect results to our customers every time displays a clear understanding of wood and wood flooring which only comes with repetitive infield exposure with supportive counsel i.e. an apprenticeship.”
Flooring Africa strives to uplift its industry and its people. By sharing freely accessible knowledge and a place to connect with the mutual industry, we can provide a stepping stone previously absent, saving floors and securing higher reward for those hungry enough to chase it.
Welcome to the #flooringrevolution
If you would like to know more about Flooring Africa and our exciting goal, please go and join our #PlankSquad on our website, it’s absolutely free. Have a scratch around, build a profile page and give us some feedback. We’re still building with forums and directory listings etc still to be unlocked but it’s starting to get exciting and we’re looking for like-minded partners.