The Tile Association is delighted to announce the appointment of Martin Pouncey as TTA Technical & Training Manager.

Martin’s appointment represents a major investment for TTA, which is set to take its technical and training work on to a new, higher level. It demonstrates TTA’s commitment to raising standards in the industry, and the support which a salaried Technical & Training Manager will provide is an exciting new benefit for members, particularly independent fixers. 

Martin will be mobile, as a liveried van is part of the commitment from TTA. This means that he will be able to provide on-site support, wherever it is required – on jobs, at member companies’ offices, at trade days and at exhibitions. He will also take over responsibility for carrying out many of TTA’s much-valued Technical Inspections.

‘This is a massive step forward for us, moving us on from providing technical support mainly through printed TTA Technical Publications’ although those will continue to be an important foundation of TTA’s work,’ says Paul Luff, TTA Chairman. ‘Having somebody with Martin’s skills, training and expertise on TTA staff, working full time on behalf of our members, is going to make an enormous difference. This will make every single member’s annual membership fee really work for them!’

Martin joins TTA from Instarmac, where he was Technical Training & Site Support Manager for five years. He was previously at BAL and latterly has been Vice-Chairman of TTA’s Training Committee. He has acted as a consultant to City & Guilds and is a qualified Assessor and External Verifier. 

‘We would struggle to think of a better qualified candidate to be our new Technical & Training Manager and are looking forward to working with him to support our members,’ says Kay Porter, CEO of TTA.

The appointment is in line with TTA’s Strategic Plan, which is currently being implemented, and in particular its first Strategic Pillar to ‘Raise tile and tiling standards and enhance installation expertise and craftsmanship’. Critically it also supports Pillar 2 of the Plan, which aims to ‘Improve the value of membership, attract, engage and retain more members’.

As well as providing technical support, coordinating training operations and encouraging member recruitment, Martin is set to work on a wide variety of technical and training communications. This enables TTA to move the training and technical aspects of its work up a gear, in pursuit of excellence and the goal of constantly improving the scope and quality of services offered to members.