Pre-apprenticeship in Painting & Decorating @ SCQF6

Course description

If you’d like to work as a professional painter and decorator, this is the ideal course for you. Skilled tradesmen usually find themselves in high demand - from both homeowners and industry - so if you invest in your abilities now, you could have a great future ahead!

This course will really get you work-ready, giving you the skills and knowledge you need for an apprenticeship in painting and decorating. By now you’ll already be pretty good, but you’re going to get even better, learning highly skilled techniques. In painting, you’ll produce specialist finishes for decorative work, including developing skills in multi-plate stencilling, learning to replicate wood and marble, and how to apply metal leaf. You’ll also produce specialist architectural finishes such as centrepieces or coving. You’ll learn how to use spraying equipment and develop skills in applying water-borne paint coatings using the very latest airless and High Volume Low Pressure (HVLP) equipment used in industry. In papering, you’ll move onto more complex surfaces, such as staircases, sloping ceilings and arches. You’ll fine tune your skills in cutting, trimming and joining, and discover how to prevent faults and defects. You’ll develop your knowledge of pattern and paper types and learn to hang wide width vinyls, along with specialist papers, like metallics or glass fibre. On the theory side, you’ll explore how to organise, plan and price jobs. You’ll learn how to safely erect and dismantle access equipment, such as towers and scaffolding. You’ll also look more in depth at health, safety and welfare in construction. Finally, you’ll have the chance to put your new skills into action with a real craft project. This might be in the local community, such as painting shop fronts in the town. Or it might be a project you carry out in college.

Learning outcome

When you successfully complete this course, you’ll have the choice of: Seeking to start your career with an apprenticeship in painting and decorating, plastering, or wall and floor tiling