Rising stars recognised at GAI Education Awards

29 Nov 2017

Rising stars in the door and window hardware industry were recognised at the Guild of Architectural Ironmongers’ (GAI) annual Education Awards on 9th November.

Taking place at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel, the event celebrated the architectural ironmongery professionals achieving a GAI qualification in the Certificate in Architectural Hardware or Diploma this year.

From the 87 learners who attained the Certificate in Architectural Hardware and the 53 students who completed the full GAI Diploma, seven also received awards at the prestigious ceremony.

The GAI Education Awards include Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for the elite students in the Diploma category, whilst the ASSA ABLOY sponsored Pinnacle Award is given to the student with the leading aggregate results over the three years of the Diploma programme.

Winning both the Pinnacle Award and GAI Diploma (Silver) was Lee Gardner, technical manager at M.E Duffell.

Lee Gardner picking up his award

His Pinnacle award was presented by Eryl Jones, managing director of ASSA ABLOY Security Solutions. Lee spoke of his delight afterwards.

“This is all about personal development for me. I’ve been with Duffells for 30 years and came straight into the business from school with no real qualifications. So I decided to go for the GAI Diploma. I received the gold award for Stages 1 and 2 so that spurred me on to Stage 3,” he said.

“It wasn’t easy as I had to learn a completely new process of how to schedule architectural ironmongery, which isn’t part of my normal day job. But I’ve loved it, and it’s a wonderful personal achievement to have done so well.

“I knew I had loads of product knowledge, but through the Diploma I learnt so much more. I’m now in charge of internal staff training and will be encouraging my colleagues to go for this excellent qualification.”

Others winners were Jean-Louis Bramwell (GAI Diploma – Gold), Garrath Willshaw (GAI Diploma – Bronze) and the Certificate in Architectural Hardware: First – Thennarasu Parimalam, Second – Iain Cameron, Joint Third – Insiya Kanchwala and Jerome Elcullada.

Jean-Louis Bramwell, of Allgood plc, pictured in the photo at the top of the piece alongside former England rugby star Matt Dawson and GAI President, David Stacey, commented: “Everyone in the door hardware industry should do this qualification. It’s hard work, but my advice is to be optimistic and don’t give up.

“It’s very useful the way the Diploma syllabus really dovetails with my job, so that also helps a lot.”

David Stacey said: “In addition to passing qualifications, it’s imperative that as professionals we continue to learn and keep our knowledge up-to-date.

“The Institute of Architectural Ironmongers’ CPD programme helps members to do this. It is the next step in demonstrating your commitment to professionalism by qualifying as a Registered Architectural Ironmonger (RegAI).”

Angie Corkhill, director of the GAI, joined the Guild in July and has been pleased.

“I have continued to be impressed by the education programme and the quality of the students who are becoming the next generation of highly skilled architectural ironmongers,” she said.

“These results reflect all of the hard work they’ve put in throughout their qualification, and now they are ready to work with architects, contractors and others to schedule and specify the ironmongery for every door and window in a building.”

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