Over the years this one-week leather finishing course has developed a reputation as a high quality source of knowledge for students about to set out on their careers in the leather industry. For this reason, the tutors set out to give them as much product and process knowledge and application experience as is possible in the time available.
Of this year’s presentation, van den Heuvel says, ‘It was very good. Everybody was excited. The emphasis of the course was on the practical work and this involved a lot of work in the laboratory. Even so, there was time for me to teach the students some of the theory behind leather finishing’.
The group of fifteen students came from all over the world. They commented on how much they had learned during the week, a true accolade to the success of this annual course.
The success of the course is almost certainly attributable to the one-to-one individual coaching which plays a large part of the essential practical work undertaken by the students. Alongside hints on many aspects of leather finishing, the tutors are able to oversee progress in producing finished leather which comes close to resembling patterns, performance and production specifications.
The high quality of the students who join this course reflects the high quality of training given to them. It has to. Van den Heuvel says of them that they will almost certainly be the leaders in the tanneries of tomorrow. They will find their way to the top of the companies for whom they will work. This is why he thinks that these training courses are a good investment by Stahl. Not only was he able to show how much the company has to offer them, he also thinks that the exceptional training offered by Stahl on these courses will not be forgotten by the students taking part.