GAI Education Awards celebrate door hardware expertise

The Guild of Architectural Ironmongers (GAI) Education Awards took place on Wednesday 2nd November, welcoming almost 400 guests to celebrate the hardware professionals who have achieved a GAI qualification this year.

Of the 90 learners who attained the Certificate in Architectural Hardware and the 42 students who completed the full GAI Diploma this year, six were presented awards at the ceremony.

Now in its thirty-sixth year, the GAI Education Awards offer Gold, Silver and Bronze pries for each qualification and the Pinnacle Award, sponsored by ASSA ABLOY, which is presented to the student with the best aggregate results over the three years of the programme.

This year’s Pinnacle Award was given to Sreejith Ramanathan by ASSA ABLOY Market Regional Manager, Neil Vann. Sreejith worked for dormakaba for three years as a project specifier, handling hardware specifications for various projects in the Middle East and North Africa region, before decide to enrol in the GAI education programme.

GAI Education Programme

The GAI Education Awards also recognised the success of the organisation’s GAI Education Programme and Education Hub.

The programme saw a 23% increase in 2015/2016 from the previous year. Thanks to GAI’s Education Hub, learners can access the programme online from anywhere in the world, providing them with all the resources to complete the qualification.

Students based outside of the UK accounted for 47% of the total learners on the programme in 2015/2016, from 27 countries around the world including South Africa, Hong Kong and Dubai.

Neil Fisher, director of the GAI, said: “We are extremely proud that our education syllabus is the only recognised programme in the world that leads to a qualification in architectural ironmongery to British and European standards.

The Education Awards allow us to not only recognise individual achievements but also celebrate the continuous progress of the GAI education programme.”

Certificate in Architectural Hardware & GAI Diploma

The GAI Certificate in Architectural Hardware is aimed at those working in warehouse and trade counter roles, procurement, scheduling and estimating, customer service, technical support, sales and administration.

The qualification is made up of two stages within 24 online education modules and covers the product knowledge a practising architectural ironmonger is required to know, broken down through helpful explanations, animations and video clips, as well as unlimited self-tests.

After achieving the Certificate in Architectural Hardware, delegates can go on to achieve the GAI Diploma, which builds on product knowledge and enables the writing of accurate hardware specifications and quotations.

The GAI Education Awards winners in full is as follows:

The Pinnacle Award:

• Sreejith Ramanathan, dormakaba UAE

The GAI Diploma:

• Gold – Sreejith Ramanathan, dormakaba UAE
• Silver – Mark Allen Basadre, dormakaba  UAE
• Bronze – Ben Westlake. Kirby and Wells Ltd (Kawstore)

Certificate in Architectural Hardware

• Gold – Lee Gardner, ME Duffell
• Silver – Régine Yvergneaux
• Bronze – Christopher Hill, Humber Merchants Ltd

Visit the GAI website

Visit Supplier's page