FITA Launches Industry Accreditation at Harrogate Floor Show
(Originally posted: Tuesday 30th August 2011)

Introducing the FITA QA Card. A quality accreditation for UK commercial floor fitters. The card will be launched at The Harrogate Flooring Show at 11:30 on Sunday 4th September in Hall B.

Many professional trades are covered by industry standards to ensure that work is completed safely and to a high standard. For gas fitters there is the Gas Safe register and for electricians there is the NICEIC. FITA has joined together with leading suppliers to develop the commercial flooring industry equivalent. The FITA - QA Card.

The accreditation is designed to:

• Provide Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for fitters
• Provide an Independent industry accreditation for fitters
• Provide reassurance to the client
• Keep floor fitters up to date with industry developments

Clients demand that professionals are both qualified and then assessed on a regular basis to keep the level of their skills high. The FITA QA card goes beyond NVQ and CSCS cards to contribute towards CPD. Working in commercial environments is demanding and conditions are often less than perfect, keeping up to date with new techniques, materials and tools is imperative.

How will FITA deliver the accreditation?

The FITA QA card has been broken down in to a series of modules to ensure that specific competencies can easily be measured and assessed. There are both practical and theoretical parts to each module to ensure thorough high quality assessment. There are one day assessments in the following subjects:

• Subfloor Preparation*
• Vinyl Tile
• Carpet Tile
• Resilient Sheet
• Adhered Carpet
• Floating Timber

*FITA recommends that all fitters complete the subfloor preparation module.

On successfully completing the assessment the QA Card will be issued, (point to banner) highlighting which modules have been passed. This not only provides a quick check (on site if required) for any Contractor or Client wanting to identify a FITA assessed installer, but also an important addition to any fitters CV and a unique selling point (USP) for businesses that employ them

The FITA website will give access to details of contractors that use QA fitters and also importantly has the facility to check the validity of fitters who hold the QA Card. As with the M&S programme, it will come as no surprise that the CFA would always recommend that any company approached through this scheme not only use FITA accredited installers, but also CFA members.

Following the launch at Harrogate, further details of the assessments modules, dates, prices etc will be released through this website, CFJ and other marketing items.

If you would like to be kept up date, please send an email to info@fita.co.uk

FITA Provides Demo Zone at Harrogate Floor Show 4-6 September 2011
(Originally posted: Tuesday 13th July 2010)

FITA is delighted to announce that we are again hosting the main flooring demonstration zone at the 2011 Harrogate floor show. Featuring products from FITA sponsors and show exhibitors we have an interesting mix of systems products and innovation that we are looking forward to showcasing.

The current prgramme for the demo zone is as follows:

Sunday

10.00 am Carpet – Stretch fit with join
11.30 am Launch of Commercial Installer Accreditation Card
1.00 pm Sub-floor preparation
2.30 pm Resilient Flooring (commercial) including cold welding
4.00 pm Sub-floor renovation system

Monday

10.00 am Carpet – Stretch fit with join
11.30 am Laminate Flooring
1.00 pm Sub-floor preparation
2.30pm Sub-floor renovation system
3.30 pm Resilient Flooring

Tuesday

10.00 am Carpet – Stretch fit with join
11.30 am Floating Solid Wood Flooring
1.00 pm Entrance Matting System
2:00 pm Sub-floor preparation

2011/2012 - new dates available
(Originally posted: Wednesday 9th June 2010)

New dates have been added to our course schedule up to August 2012.

M&S use FITA to assess floor layers
(Originally posted: Thursday 7th January 2010)

Following consultation in the summer of 2009, we are delighted to announce that leading high street retailer Marks and Spencer (M&S) decided to use FITA to carry out assessments on installers who will fit floors in their premises for their ongoing programme in 2010.

Part of their wider Flooring Improvement Programme which also requires all companies employed to be CFA members M&S Construction Standards Manager Matt Edgell made the following comments regarding the objectives and experience of working with both FITA and the CFA:

“As part of a significant drive in 2009 to identify and eliminate a large number of poor quality flooring installation in its stores, M&S established a team whose challenge was to remove the identified issues. This challenge led to the development of a ten point Flooring Improvement Programme fully supported by the flooring industry itself.

As part of our improvement programme we wanted to establish a baseline of competency that all floor layers working in M&S Stores achieved.  This is the area that the Flooring Industry Training Association (FITA) were able to assist.  Working with FITA, we developed a four module assessment programme that utilised their centrally located, fully equipped training centre.  On our behalf FITA were able to assess the competency of and to demonstrate best practice to a group of 44 pre-selected floor layers in a 5 week period in November and December 2009.  We have been impressed by FITA's ability to successfully co-ordinate and manage this assessment programme taking into account the flexibility required when dealing with floor layers from multiple organisations throughout the UK.

Overall our experience of working with the CFA and FITA has been incredibly positive and we look forward to reaping the rewards of the relationship with an improved quality of installed floor.”

New Sponsors
(Originally posted: Monday 10th March 2008)

We would like to welcome new sponsors Karndean International Ltd and InterfaceFLOR to our list of Premier Sponsors. 

Thank you to our new sponsors and also our long standing supporters.