“We are fortunate enough to have them here today, and they’re teaching the building construction class the decoupling method of tile application that is used with Schluter products. It’s decoupling the substrates from the tile. So when things expand, contract, your tile is not going to crack, break, shift, move, so it’s a great experience for these kids to work with a major company like this, and get this opportunity to learn and grow.” Labeksy said.

Chris Hossler, Schluter’s territory manager, along with presenter Roger Diller, have been traveling to classrooms around the nation, offering training as a way of giving back, by showing students proper setting skills and the use of their products, all while having some fun with it too. It is something that they both feel very strongly about and have done for a number of years. Hossler and Diller are both very passionate about getting to the younger generation and getting them started, pointing out that workers in their generation are “falling off the other end faster than the young guys are coming into the industry.” In recognizing that, about five years ago, Diller took on the role as a presenter with two day workshops around the world.

Moving from the sales department to the education team, Diller was eager to share that the company is super supportive of what they do and they are always willing to connect with more workforce training opportunities.

“It’s very important to Schluter Systems to understand why we do what we do. It’s a very different product. It’s a very innovative product, bringing back some of the old, ancient principles that the ancient tile installers knew, but very important to us to train the new generation and even the existing contractors, only doing it a better way or right way that we consider to be the right way to do it. So it is very important for us for this training, and that’s my role now.”

Students from the building and construction program at the Warren County Career Center obtain instruction from Schluter trainer Roger Diller.

Diller was impressed with some of the questions that students asked.

“It’s amazing to me to be with a group of kids that are actually interested enough to sit there and pay attention. I think what you know, as well as I do, we’ve lost a lot of the trades in schools. A lot of this is unique.”

Labesky said that the store works with this building and construction program quite a bit throughout the year, donating the tiles that were used for the experiences as well as other flooring supplies.

She also said, “I think just what Schlueter is doing for high schools in general is extraordinary. These are our kids of tomorrow. There’s too many kids that aren’t in the trades, and I love that they’re getting out and supporting those kids in that direction.”

Building and trades teacher Greg Waterman commented that, “This shows a class something slightly different, like, I realized we’re construction trades here, but what we see in our workshops is there’s many more remodelers, general contractors that now do tile work for themselves. So again, this is just a way of trying to keep the tile work within the trades.”

Instructor Greg Waterman helps students take tile outdoors to dry and also mentioned that repurposing items happens a lot in the building and construction classroom.

Senior, Meisyn Haskins, shared his thoughts on the learning that took place saying that he realized how easy it might be to do it himself in his own house someday. “I may think about redoing my own now after getting inspiration from the demonstration they did for us. I think it’s awesome how passionate everyone is.”

Inspired by the trainers, Haskins said, “It makes me really think, these guys really care, and their product actually means something to them. So they clearly have a desire to make the world a better place, and that inspires me to make the world a better place as well.”