A national agency has been set up to raise training standards within the stone industry.

Managed by the Stone Federation Great Britain and funded by the Construction Industry Training Board CITB, the Natural Stone Industry Training Group will establish qualification and educational requirements, proposes assessment criteria, and recommends standards for training throughout the sector.

The group will initially concentrate on raising the quality of training in a range of occupation groups including stone flooring, façade cleaning and repair, fixer mason, mason's mate, drawing and design.

Jane Buxley, director of the Stone Federation Great Britain: "The group's vision is to provide coordinated training across the industry, which best fills the needs of our related professions, and to ensure that those needs are continually assessed and evaluated in line with CITB requirements."

It is planned that pilot projects for these occupational groups will be underway by the end of 2004.

Those who wish to contribute towards raising the standards in training new recruits in the natural stone industry should contact the Stone Federation Great Britain at enquiries@stonefederationgb.org.uk or telephone 01303 856123.