Our Training Facilities
At the Able Skills construction training centre in Dartford, we’ve been providing training to the construction and technical trades since 2002. We deliver training in gas, electrical, plumbing, decorating, carpentry, tiling, plastering, and bricklaying.
Our purpose-built facilities are housed in an extensive 50,000sqft of training space, spread across nine units. Each of the different trades are taught in dedicated areas. For example, electrician training is taught in one of four units, plumbing in one of two plumbing workshops. Training is focused on one subject to ensure you can work freely without distractions.
Reality training is a priority, so we have work bays or room sets set up to replicate real-world working scenarios. We also have teaching and demonstration areas, classrooms, exam rooms and assessment areas to deliver all stages of training and assessments.
Take a look around our training facilities
We welcome visitors to the centre any time we’re open. You can come down to the centre, ask at the office and we will give you a tour.
If you live too far away or you can’t make it down, you can still take a look around. Click on the individual departments to take a virtual tour!
Electrical
There are four electrical workshops, each with partitioned work bays around a central demonstration area. Each of the work bays is fully equipped with tools and training board. We also have classrooms for theory and the 18th Edition, plus an NET-approved AM2 centre on site.
Gas
We have three gas training workshops at Able Skills, as well as classrooms, an ACS assessment centre, and a commercial gas training area. In the gas workshops, the practical tasks replicate gas work in the real world, so you’ll see old and new gas appliances during your training.
Plumbing
We have two plumbing units at Able Skills. Both are thoughtfully set up to allow students space to work independently on a variety of real-world plumbing tasks in a safe environment. These include bathroom room sets and work bench areas where students practice pipework skills.
Bricklaying
Unit K1 is the bricklaying workshop. This spacious construction area is located on the ground floor with easy access to the outside space through the front doors. The room is set out with individual stations, including tools and wheelbarrows, with build space for each student.
Carpentry
Our carpentry training centre is located on the first floor of Unit K1. The main workshop is spacious enough for students to be working on larger construction tasks at the same time. Adjacent to that, there are areas with woodworking benches, machinery and assessment bays.
Tiling
On the ground floor in Unit K2, you’ll find our tiling centre with its partitioned room sets. Some of these are set up like kitchen areas with worktops or windows, and some are more like bathrooms, so it replicates the areas you’ll be tiling at home or at work when you finish the course.
Plastering
Plastering is located in Unit K5 on the ground floor. The training area is sectioned into room sets with ceilings to board out and plaster over, and windows and doors to work around. Fully equipped with tools and materials, this area is where we teach drylining and rendering as well as plastering.
Decorating
On the first floor of Unit K5 is our decorating centre. The partitioned room sets provide an ideal workspace for learning how to paint and wallpaper. Each work area has plenty of room for a trestle table, tools and materials.