We recently carried out inhouse asphalt training which was conducted by Matthew Coulter who has over 40 years’ experience within the roofing industry and carries an NVQ in both Mastic Asphalt and Reinforced Bitumen Membrane, the operatives who attended were Sonny, Jack, Reece and Callum. The training was carried out over half a day. During the training the operatives learnt to asphalt up a brick wall as well as the details of asphalting corners and filleting.

As part of supporting staff to undertake apprenticeships and professional qualifications we carried out this asphalt training in order to better prepare operatives for when they go on to their apprenticeship, enhance local labour and skills towards going for their NVQ.

Carrying out the training improves the skills of our labourers on site and supports charge hands who benefit from a team that have learnt new skills and better understand how mastic asphalt is managed and installed by a skilled craftsman.

Commenting on the training Matthew said “It’s great to see some of the labourers getting hands-on experience of handling and spreading mastic asphalt. It’s really important to sustain this specialist trade, and through our support for in-house training and apprentices we can ensure we have a supply of future asphalters who learn the skills knowledge and behaviours to become successful mastic asphalters.”

Sonny commented “It was an interesting session working with Matt. It’s great to have the chance to learn and have a go at laying asphalt. I feel I know more about it now and hope I can move on to more training or even an apprenticeship in time.”

Sussex Asphalte understands the importance of upskilling not just their operatives but estimators and contracts managers too. Training is an important factor in boosting staff satisfaction and retention rates, as well as future proofing the business. Equally as important as employee satisfaction is client satisfaction. Providing excellent experience or service to your clients is imperative to win repeat business or new clients through word-of-mouth recommendations or case studies.

Recently a half day of training was carried out at our head office in Pyecombe by Jamie Holden from Proteus Waterproofing. The training was for two of our internal staff members (Harry, Estimator and Lewis, Contracts Manager) and one liquid waterproofing operative Luke. This training was conducted in order to upskill and increase their understanding of Proteus products for pricing purposes to promote products and potentially self certify and self specify roofing systems as well as making sure they convey maximum awareness of systems supplied by manufacturers.

As well as training staff in Sussex Asphalte, these events are upskilling members of the local community. We directly employ over 25 staff that all live within the Greater Brighton area that benefits from our commitment to the training and professional development of our workforce.