SPECIAL FEATURE –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Bob Howard, from the United Kingdom. “Working together is especially important with regard to developing training and attract- ing people to the fixer (installer) workforce.” Although European nations dif- fer greatly from the U.S. in how young people enter the trade and how education is developed and delivered, participants were eager to share how their training pro- grams work. “We all speak the same language of tile,” said Peter Goegebeur, Secretary of the Belgian Innovative Tile Academy. “Tile is our passion and we know it can become a passion for others when they learn more about the profession.” The NTCA Executive Committee has established strategic objec- tives to strengthen education, recruit individuals into tile and stone installation professions, and expand the outreach of the NTCA to an international audience. “This meeting advances several of our association’s strategic goals,” explained NTCA President Martin Howard. “Our primary objective is to strengthen the installation community for the benefit of our members. International partner- ships will help us learn what other installers are doing that we could share with our membership and put those ideas to work here at home.” This forum builds on recent work the NTCA has done to share standards and methods with EUF president Bob Howard from the UK, was optimistic about the collabo- ration. Andreas Huys of the Belgian Innovative Tile Academy discusses education. (L. to r.) Italy’s Ivan Raimondi, an inter- preter for the group, Paulo Colombo, Luciano Galassini of Confindustria Ceramica, and Brian Newell of the U.K. (l. to r.) EUF President Bob Howard, Assoposa's Director Francesco Bergomi, and TTMAC's Dale Kempster. NTCA president Martin Howard. 72 TileLetter | December 2017