Strabane man recalls the rise of Craft Training

From humble beginnings, great things come…The history of Craft Training offers no small amount of inspiration.

Started from the bedroom of their Strabane home, husband and wife Seamus and Marie Nealis ‘crafted’ an idea which has come to signify the tenets of education, resilience and innovation. From the ground up they built a company which has become a leading supplier of training for qualifications and NVQs, with a repertoire of over 60 courses on offer to learners of all ages and from all walks of life.

Today (Thursday) marks 30 years of Craft and as well as having bases in Strabane, Omagh, Cookstown, Derry and Sion Mills, they now employ 40+ staff delivering qualifications across the entire geographic region of Northern Ireland. They also estimate that since the Craft doors were first opened unto the world in 1994, they have helped over 15,000 learners. From humble beginnings…

“School was never for me,” Seamus Nealis explains. “The idea of remaining in a seat for all that time did not appeal to me and I wanted to work with my hands. I loved metal and woodworking. I had a passion and interest in furniture restoration and after a teacher told me ‘You will never amount to anything young man,’ I wanted to prove him wrong and pursue my own interests.”

Seamus further explained that he then joined a training centre and learnt furniture trades, later progressing to a role as a tutor.

“I had a daughter and wife and while I was on a residential with the students in America I was made redundant,” he continues. “I got £3,200 redundancy money. I then sat with my wife and we discussed working for myself. I bought my first car and spent the next year going around furniture and kitchen companies asking if I were to bring a qualification to Ireland would they support me and the feedback was incredible.

“We set up a training company on July 11 1994 originally as ‘Furniture Matters,’ delivering furniture qualifications to kitchen companies and over the period of 12 months grew exponentially. Working from the bedroom of our home, my wife and I established a database of employers and set about looking for premises and tutors. After our first premises burnt to the ground, we moved to Mopack Business Complex in the Ballycolman and have been there ever since. Each year we grew and employed administrators, tutors and developed links with awarding bodies offering training in construction, retail, and furniture trades. We re-branded as Craft Training which was an acronym for Construction, Restoration and Furniture Trades.”

He adds, “ I was born in Clady but Strabane is now my home and community is vitally important to me so it made sense to work with my own people, for my own people and provide training and employment in the area in which I live.”

For the first eight years Craft sub- contracted the provision through other training organisations across as no new contracts were being handed out. However they were then fortunate to secure a government contract to deliver programmes, a much-needed boon which gave them the stability to grow and develop.

“ One of the main difficulties was staffing in the early stages, as this was such a new company we found it difficult to get staff to leave their industries and become a tutor for a fledgling business. But soon our reputation grew and word got out we were good to work for and we now have some staff who started with us in the early stages. Bringing up a young family with us both working every hour we could, was a challenging undercurrent also.”

With Marie’s experience in the textiles industry and her exceptional administration, personal approach and eye to detail, Seamus describes she and he as “an incredible team.”

“Although this will sound clichéd but every day is a positive day,” Seamus enthuses. “When you experience working with learners as young as 14 year old with complex issues, who remain on the programme to their end of time – for some this may be six years – and come back to Craft to say hello and thank us as happy adults with their own families – or even as employers looking to take young people on placement – that is the ultimate high point. We see our learners excel in jobs in our communities, overseas and working for award winning employers. Enabling our young people to gain employment and seeing the full cycle is always a high point for us.”

With birthday celebrations beginning on Thursday the Craft family marked the occasion with both staff and learners.

“We have a calendar of events planned from celebration and award ceremonies, showcase days, events, VIP guest days and putting the focus back onto the people who have helped up along the way, for example employers and returning students. We will be reaching out to past learners and mapping their journeys, using social media for prize giveaways etc – a busy year is planned for everyone so keep a look out on our social media for more information! “

So how does the future look for Craft NI? Will it be here in another 30 years?

“Hopefully going from strength to strength!” Seamus says.

“We have calculated that we have had over 15,000 learners through our doors so hopefully we’ll be continuing this trend!

“Craft truly is a family business with five family members involved directly or indirectly with businesses.

“Given the current climate and potential for unemployment rising with the level of hardship and cost of living, we need to ensure Craft provision is maintained and expanded across Northern Ireland and the business model is enhanced to react to the ever changing landscape.

“Thirty years ago, I never thought my wife Marie and I would change the world working from the bedroom of our house but we did think we could change some things for the better; those clients and businesses that crossed our paths and would let us help them in Education and Training. We always rely on other people telling us we are successful or not because we can be our own biggest critics and on Thursday June 20 we felt like we had the support of our local communities and business people when I won Business Person of the Year in the Derry Journal People of the Year award ceremony and received a commendation for Inspirational Educator of the Year. This was a very humbling experience and one I am still taking in. For me, that is changing the world 30 years later.”

Seamus concluded, “Within our local community the amount of hard work from other organisations working in a similar context and working with us in dealing with very vulnerable young people is incredible.

“We want to maintain these partnerships in the future to help provide together an education that best fits them in their environments and be a lesson to all districts in Northern Ireland on how to collaborate and invest in our future, our young people.”