Those of you who have been reading Majjie's blog for a while - or following me on Twitter - will know that I sometimes get involved in KBB (kitchen, bedroom, bathroom) industry wrangles about kitchen designer training. Or, more accurately, the lack of any such training.

As an independent kitchen designer, I'm well placed to judge the lack of satisfaction amongst consumers, when it comes to kitchen design. That's mostly at the lower end of the market, but it sometimes extends quite a long way up, to pricier kitchens too. And, in any case, those who buy inexpensive kitchens surely have just as much right to some decent design input for their projects?

Should only bespoke kitchens benefit from good kitchen design?

Of course, I don't get to see the kitchen designs that consumers are happy with, so maybe my opions are a bit biased. But, on the other hand, what about all those people who didn't come to me (or any other competent kitchen designer) - and who have put up with the boring, unimaginative designs ... or who have been "persuaded" to have something they didn't really want - or have bought a product which didn't really suit their needs - or worse still, end up with a kitchen that won't fit. The discontent that I see could well be the tip of an iceberg. And doesn't that represent a failing in the KBB industry?

A good kitchen designer needs to have a flair for design, of course, but a lot of the problems are to do with lack of training, too much emphasis on selling and not enough on designing ... and a complete lack of accessible technical information and design guidelines. I wrote about the problems and the lack of any proper training route here.

Another reason I'm interested, is because I get a few enquiries, via this website, from young people wanting to know how they could become kitchen designers, or asking for advice on learning their trade ... and I have very little to tell them. The best way for an inexperienced but keen youngster to get into the industry is to apply for a job with a direct sales organisation, or one of the big multiples that sell kitchens. You will then receive in-house training, where kitchen design principles will be skimmed over, and you will be taught to sell kitchens. From there, you can progress to working in more diverse kitchen retailers, if you wish ... but you will have to find for yourself the more detailed information that you need (and pick the brains of more experienced designers).

Higher up the market, some showrooms take on interior designers as kitchen designers ... but very few of them have any proper kitchen design training ... they have to learn on the job too.

There is an organisation that I believe should have been more concerned about this problem ... and that's the KBB NTG (National Training Group). So - because I have a fairly high profile website, when it comes to the KBB industry - and because I can! - I'm going to list my questions concerning training:

Open Questions to the KBB NTG and the KBB Industry

1. What has prevented the inclusion of kitchen design as a separate discipline in the Proskills proposals for future training and qualifications … which are supposed to relate directly to “the training and skills needs of companies in the Furniture, Furnishing and Interiors Industries”? The NTG has been working with Proskills and has either had no influence, or has agreed that kitchen design need not be included separately. I have asked the same question of Proskills – but no answer has been forthcoming as yet.
2. What is the NTG’s position on kitchen design being a separate discipline, with separate training needs to those of both interior and furniture designers (even though there may be some overlap)? The NTG seems to be concentrating on working with the SBID (Society of British Interior Design) – to facilitate interior designers moving into kitchen design, rather than with existing, practicing kitchen designers.
3. What is the NTG’s position on providing more accessible, nationwide training (possibly including on-line courses), rather than piecemeal initiatives on a local basis by just a handful of training organisations?
4. The new NTG website makes mention of a “level 3 NVQ for kitchen design”. When is that course going to be available? Is it going to be available nationally? What is its correct QCF compliant title? Who is the awarding body? Which Sector Skills Council is endorsing it? (QCF is the Qualifications and Credits Framework and all government funded courses – such as apprenticeships - need to be inside the QCF system).
5. Has the NTG been working on an apprenticeship framework for kitchen designers (as opposed to kitchen installers)?
6. Has the NTG considered developing material that is QCF compatible, whilst keeping it outside of the QCF until all the criteria can be met … and making that material immediately available to kitchen designers?
7. What is the NTG’s position on making kitchen design data and training material more widely available to kitchen designers – without there being, necessarily, a profit in providing it? A kitchen design manual might have been the most useful thing the NTG could have provided for new and existing designers. Have manufacturers and suppliers been approached with a view to funding such material, or helping to provide the information?
8. The relatively new organisation the BKDA (British Kitchen Designers Association) doesn’t seem able to help with any answers. Why is that? Is the NTG not prepared to talk to the organisation representing working professional kitchen designers? The result must surely be that, if the BKDA wishes to help kitchen designers, it must re-invent the wheel when it comes to providing technical information and training.
9. Is it appropriate for almost all of the trade media to be represented on the NTG board? Doesn’t that mean that they’re so close to the organisation that they don’t ask any awkward questions? And what about the KBSA (the organisation for kitchen showrooms)? Aren’t they letting down a lot of their retailers – if they haven’t insisted on vocational training? 
10. And finally a question that isn’t directly about the KBB NTG. Do working kitchen designers and retailers care? The KBB industry is notoriously apathetic when it comes to organisations and qualifications but if the National Training Group doesn’t do anything, who will? If the NTG gives up on vocational training and works mainly with the SBID, I can foresee a future where only graduate interior designers will be qualified to design kitchens (and how expensive will they be – for employers and consumers?). As an industry which includes many small businesses, wouldn’t the apprenticeship route to kitchen designer training be more appropriate?

I ask these questions purely as an interested individual and to, maybe, facilitate the future of independent kitchen design (my particular enthusiasm), outside of the interior design profession. I have nothing against interior designers and many, of course, are talented kitchen designers (with post qualification experience and/or training). I strongly believe, though, that you don’t need to be an interior designer to become a kitchen designer. It’s a separate discipline.

UPDATE 18th JULY 2012

Well, I went to the KBB Forum meeting in Nottingham yesterday. It's held under the Chatham House Rule - so I can't tell you who was there, or who said what, but I can tell you more or less what happened. I was there representing the Federation of Kitchen and Bathroom Designers (FKBD) - which may come as something of a surprise, since I often disagree with how Garry is doing things. We have the same basic desire, though, to promote a higher profile for designers (and design) within the KBB industry ... and Garry couldn't get there.

The main focus of the meeting was apprenticeships. The new WEBS training facilty is marvellous but the kitchen installers apprenticeship scheme is under threat, by new rules coming out in August. The rules are aimed at stopping bogus apprenticeship schemes - but they also affect the WEBS scheme whereby they actually employ the apprentices themselves, to get round the reluctance of self employed fitters to take on an apprentice. Everyone (apart from this stupid government) agrees that it's a brilliant scheme - so if you know anyone with any influence - get complaining!

The industry also needs more big employers (like the kitchen multiple retailers) - to use national apprenticeship schemes instead of just having in-house training schemes; although many of them use sub-contracted fitting firms - so, perhaps those should be the targets for fitting apprenticeships. Again, if you know anyone with influence, please spread the word. WEBS is apparently going to be involved in the new kitchen design NVQ too (but I still don't know it's correct title or any details).

I wanted to make six points, at the meeting, about the current problems with KBB design - but I was stopped from doing so. The Forum only wants solutions (or grand lobbying schemes) apparently, not problems. There was some discussion of whether kitchen design should be included within interior design, with me being the only one who emphatically thought it shouldn't. Worse still, it was even suggested that there was no necessity for any organisation for kitchen or bathroom designers. I think the Forum clearly demonstrated the opposite! If I had realised how closely associated the KBB Forum is with the KBB NTG, I could have guessed that my reception wouldn't have been very positive. I mistakenly thought it was a completely separate entity.

The six points I wanted to make - in case anyone else wants to know - were:

1. Design has historically been low profile in the KBB industry because retailers, cabinetmakers and fitters often do their own designing, just as a means to an end
2. When sales designers are employed separately, the emphasis is often too much on sales and not enough on design and the "free" design model makes things worse
3. The overall quality of design, especially at the lower end of the market, is poor - and customer dissatisfaction is high which, in itself, is costing the industry money (I came across a lady who'd had 23 designs done!)
4. Loading the cost of even two or three "free" designs, onto the cost of an individual kitchen is helping to polarise the industry, making it much easier for companies that have no design service (on the internet, for example) to undercut the prices of those who do (has anyone noticed how well Ultima Furniture Systems - parent company of DIY Kitchens - is doing?).
5. Kitchen showrooms are often reluctant to design kitchens where building work is to be done - and may refuse to do so until the building work is completed - they also tend to design just for a small area where the kitchen is to be sited, without taking the whole room into account (when it's a big open plan area). That's a bad service for consumers ... but that reluctance to design kitchens well ahead of a sale is also driving those potential customers into the hands of their builders when it comes to the supply of the kitchen (that's why Howdens are doing so well ... and I'm sure it played a part in the demise of Moben and Kitchens Direct). The vast majority of kitchen designs I've completed over the past few years have been for extensions and house alterations.
6. My last point was about training - which is ground I've covered many times before, so I won't repeat it here - but I wanted to point out that although the Forum has identified training as a priority, it won't do any good, as far as designers are concerned, unless the culture within the industry, of downplaying design, can be changed.

There are, of course, many retailers and showrooms who do put design at the forefront of their priorities ... but the  "free" design model and the emphasis on sales to the detriment of design - far from being essential to the survival of independent retailers - is actually losing them business, impairing their image with the public, and costing them money.

The individual members of the Forum were all perfectly pleasant - and I was perhaps naive, in thinking that they'd listen - but, even taking into account their natural impatience at a newcomer who doesn't know what's gone before, I despair of raising the profile of design within such a "been there, done that, we know all about it" atmosphere. It's not as if the KBB NTG is open about it's plans and intentions, to ordinary designers.

Kitchen designers do, indeed, need to organise for themselves. Please have a look at the FKBD and the BKDA and join one or both, to strengthen our representation, get our voices heard and put kitchen design on a more professional basis.

Incidentally, although I picked up some information about what the KBB NTG is doing, along the way - there has been no formal reply to my original questions about training.

UPDATE 5th September 2012

Apologies - I haven't had the time to keep this page updated recently. As some of you may know, I've been writing a book about kitchens and kitchen design and the dealine was the end of August. I've missed that deadline and have been given a few weeks reprieve - but the pressure's still on! And, of course, I still have my kitchen designs to do.

I have received replies to my questions to the KBB NTG - and I will try to add them here at a later date.

N.B. Please check the dates of any comments below to ascertain which part of this page they refer to