BACK TO COLLEGE FOR JOSB DONE

Campaign to promote Oriented Strand Board holds a training day at Mid-Cheshire College to demonstrate its varied applications to the builders of the future. 

Industry campaign JOSB Done has headed back to college to educate the builders of the future on the uses and benefits of Oriented Strand Board (OSB).

The one day tutorial at Mid-Cheshire College, Northwich, provided the second year carpentry and joinery students with a detailed insight into the manufacture, application and quality and environmental credentials of this wood panel and through a practical afternoon session, demonstrated the versatility of OSB for a whole host of building jobs, large and small.

Designed to inspire and educate, JOSB Done organised the guest lecture day in order to understand more closely what young builders are learning when it comes to wood panels and to show them the possibilities that OSB has to offer.

All of the 30 plus students in attendance on the day were familiar with OSB, having used it within their project work for the construction of walls mainly, but had a variety of questions to ask the JOSB Done team during the theory session. Keen to learn more, the students learnt about the strength of OSB and the importance of choosing timber with the appropriate quality credentials and environmental certifications.

The afternoon's practical session set the students the task of creating a bookcase from OSB, based on a simple brief that could be interpreted however they saw fit. The students broke off into groups to work out how they would tackle the challenge and with natural peer competitiveness aside, the results were impressive and surprised the students themselves.

Alastair Kerr, Director General of the Wood Panel Industries Federation (WPIF) and spokesperson for the JOSB Done campaign, commented: "This one day tutorial at Mid-Cheshire College was a thoroughly worthwhile experience for us. For the past six years, JOSB Done has endeavoured to communicate the uses and benefits of OSB to the industry, with the general builder remaining the core audience we have wanted to influence.

"After speaking with the carpentry and joinery course lecturer, is became clear that the students are always enthusiastic to have guests from the industry come in to talk to them and it was very interesting to find out what the students already knew about OSB and what common questions kept arising. By visiting the 'builders of the future', we were able to gain an insight into their knowledge base and provide guidance on the practicalities of OSB within all manner of building work and construction.

"A cost-effective and sustainable solution to the everyday tasks that builders face, as well as a high quality, consistent and reliable on the job solution for large scale construction projects, OSB is becoming increasingly popular.

"A recent report BIS Shrapnel details an upturn in the global economy over the next five years with a general increase in the demand for OSB, driven mainly by housing construction and furniture manufacturing.

"This latest assessment paints a picture of great opportunity for the growth of OSB over the next five years. Recognising that there has been a massive shift in favour of strong and sustainable wood panels in the last decade, the research indicates that this trend will continue and more countries will begin to benefit from its structural and environmental benefits."

The first training day of its kind undertaken by the group, JOSB Done is optimistic about the potential to replicate the success of the Mid-Cheshire College tutorial at other colleges in the UK, as Alastair concludes: "The original issue JOSB Done set out to address was the lack of understanding in the industry about OSB's capabilities and the reason misconceptions continued to abound was because of entrenched attitudes and limited information.

"We have worked to resolve this issue and believe that speaking to young builders at the start of their career about the tangible benefits OSB has to offer is only going to ensure that more and more people have all the facts when it comes to choosing a wood panel for the job at hand. Increasingly this is OSB and when seen in practice, the arguments as to why it should be used for building jobs large and small become very clear indeed."