ONLINE: Education
• National Tile Contractors Association (NTCA), Flowood, Miss., now offers NTCA University continuing education and training at its website through the NTCA University section
There are three separate sections to the University: Apprenticeship, Business and Continuing Education. Apprenticeship courses are developed to educate individuals new to the tile industry but they can also be beneficial for any employees that are new to the industry such as sales representatives. All courses can be purchased on an individual basis. A
A great example of an outstanding course recently developed in the Apprenticeship Program is the History of Tile. Created with support from the Tile Heritage Foundation, History of Tile is designed to introduce the individual to how tile started in the United States and how it progressed to what we know today.
The apprentice finisher program will be a two-year program. The first six months are all orientation courses designed to introduce someone to everything they may see on the job. The next six months will feature skill development courses. Each course has a quiz associated with it, with a minimum 80% score to receive a completion certificate.
Once more courses are developed, information will be available for contractors to learn how to submit the apprentice program to their state Department of Labor to register the apprentice program.
Many of our contractor members are family-owned businesses and they are not big companies. They have spent their lives working in the tile industry and not necessarily running a business. For this reason, NTCA University offers business courses such as basic marketing, basic accounting, employee recruitment, social media in the workplace, and workplace diversity.
Continuing education courses have been added to the site. These courses are registered with AIA and IDCEC continuing education credits. All of the presentations created by the NTCA are available online for architects, designers, contractors, and manufacturers. Like Apprenticeship, each course has a quiz and test that must be completed and passed before a certificate can be issued.
All of the courses are available for purchase on the NTCA store. Once you have purchased a course, you will receive a link to the course. You can either click on the link to directly access the course or you can log on to your NTCA account to access the NTCA University to view all of your courses. Courses are able to be taken on computers, tablets, or phones.
CONTACT: NTCA, 601-939-2071