State tile apprenticeships are a growing tradition, one that has been strongly supported in recent years by NTCA. In the mid 90s, DMI Tile & Marble in Birmingham, Ala., launched its Career Craftsmanship Program to give tile setters a career path and improve performance.

A few years ago, Michael Whistler of Whistler Tile in Big Fork, Mont., set out to develop its own apprenticeship program, with abundant guidance and support from both DMI and NTCA.

Now the Oregon Columbia Tile Trades Apprenticeship Program joins the ranks. Approved by the Oregon Apprenticeship Training Council meeting in September, the Tile Finisher and Tile Setter classes began at the Northwest College of Construction (NWCC) in November. And both NTCA and DMI were there to lend their support in developing the three-year program.

Dan Graham, NWCC president, Susan Floyd, director of training and safety for DMI Tile & Marble, Inc., Chuck Rogers, tile instructor, NWCC; Tim Mosterdyke, director of education, NWCC.

The Oregon program required a concerted effort to get up and running. Tim Mosterdyke, director of education for NWCC acknowledged Marc Dollahite, committee chair of the Oregon-Columbia Tile Trades JATC and Paragon Tile as the “stars of this show, accompanied by other participating contractors, including Rose City Tile, and DeWolf’s Tile & Marble Inc. Showing persistence and restraint, they stayed the course.” He also had high praise for Richard Peterson, the apprenticeship representative assigned to the program by the Bureau of Labor and Industries, who he called, “indispensable in guiding us through the nuances of the approval process.”

Essential in the process, offering “tremendous resources” was NTCA, which “reviewed and approved proposed curriculum, as well as the authors of the curriculum, DMI Tile in Alabama.” Mosterdyke said “DMI bent over backwards,” to help, sending training director Susan Floyd to NWCC to “perform train-the-trainer functions with our instructors. Tiffany Kriesel, NWCC director of apprenticeship, was captain of the ship, providing leadership and expertise, applying her knowledge and experience; while concurrently overseeing six on-going apprenticeship programs; nothing short of amazing.”

Start to finish
The program began with merit shop tile contractors wanting to start an apprenticeship program to provide formal training for employees, Mosterdyke said. Oregon Columbia Tile Trades persevered to “provide an alternative to the union program and opportunities for additional means of skill advancement and standardization within the tile trades,” the latter of which Mosterdyke said was a missing piece of the puzzle.

NWCC apprenticeship programs are open to non-apprentices as well, so both the Tile Finisher and Tile Setter Programs will be open enrollment, Mosterdyke said. Classes will be offered once a month on Fridays and Saturdays for 10 months. (nwcoc.org for details) “These weekend courses also act as stand-alone ‘modules’ and may be taken independent of other weekend ‘modules, thus serving a dual purpose as journey-upgrade classes,” Mosterdyke said.

DMI’s Floyd pointed out that in addition to the DMI curriculum that NWCC will implement for its program, and books available through NTCA, incremental books from NTCA are also available and will be used to train individuals that are interested in only one aspect of tile work.

As of mid-January, Mosterdyke said that there are from 8-10 students in the Tile Finisher program and 14 apprentices in the Tile Setter Level One track.

“This has been a great team,” Mosterdyke said, “and all for the betterment of apprentices and program participants, as well as, for the tile trade as a whole. As is the nature of a free market system, a little competition should make us all better.”