Glenmoor and Winton Students show ‘Exceptional Ability’

Last Thursday the Level  2 Blue Skies students from Glenmoor and Winton had a day at the Farrow and Ball paint and wallpaper factories. After a talk on leadership and the good and bad qualities of a leader from Simon Downey, Production Manager, students were treated to a tour of both factories. Some great questions were asked about how different employees progressed their careers and worked as a team. Also how mistakes and problems are over come in a business where every tin of paint is valuable. Next up was the wallpaper factory where the papers are painstakingly painted and either pattern rolled or printed. Students were fascinated by the skill and expertise required to ensure all the papers are exactly pattern matched, cut and rolled.

In the afternoon students were split into small teams and set the wall paper challenge – no mean feat with these expensive wall papers! After expert instruction the teams had to get a system of production going to ensure that the papers had time to sit and expand as well as being accurately pasted, hung and pattern matched.

After the first questionable attempts the students got better and better, as well as more determined and their attention to detail and doing the best job possible was both inspirational to watch and also gave them immense job satisfaction: proving a job well done as a team, with clear leadership, is the best feeling in the world.

Wayne Armstrong, Decorator said “I felt that the whole group, including staff benefited from the two days of events and was nice to pass on some of my expertise. It would be lovely to think that some of the skills will benefit all of the participants in some way in the future. I was amazed at the results that were achieved with the hanging of our wallpapers especially with the patterns. On first application for them to take on board what had been done wrong or missed and then to  correct it on the second hanging with such great results was inspirational. The attention to detail of some of the students was amazing. A fantastic achievement!”