FÁS Introduce New Argos/Ikea Flat-Pack Furniture Assembly Course

FAS is to introduce a new Argos/Ikea flat-pack furniture assembly course at its Waterford Training Centre, in response to the growing problem of cryptic instruction manuals.

The news comes as the popular ‘How to change a car wheel’ course shuts down after eight years in operation.

The Flat pack assembly course will provide places for 78 trainees when it starts early next year, and two new instructors will be added to cater for the new students, the only one of its kind in the region outside of Dublin.

FAS Waterford already provides courses that train apprentices in the art of siphoning petrol and how to cut a 9 bar into 10 ounces, and this new course will cater for the need to provide skilled flat-pack assemblers in the DIY furniture industry.

The ‘How to change a car wheel’ course trained qualified drivers capable of carrying out the tasks arising from punctures and broken alloys. It was an eight month course with a City and Guilds certificate awarded to the successful trainees. The course had an average of 64% passes which was one of the highest in the south eastern Training centre, coming only second to the ‘Home hoovering’ course which had a whopping 67% pass rate.

But a slowdown in road side hedge cutting and better quality tire productions has reduced the demand for apprentices in this sector.

According to a FAS spokeperson, the provision of the ‘How to change a car wheel’ course – the only one of its kind in the country – will remain under review, and the state-of-the-art equipment used to train apprentices will be retained. The spokesperson emphasised that the course is merely “jacked up for the moment”.