Hardwood Floors August/September 2019

RESOURCES

The Future of Training

Fineas was named the first recipient of the NWFA Next Generation award at the Wood Flooring Expo held earlier this year in Fort Worth, Texas. The award was created to recognize the growing impact young people are having on the wood flooring industry. The award was presented to recognize Fineas's accomplishment and to encourage him and others to remain engaged with lifelong learning. "Almost three years ago now, the NWFA launched the NWFAU to reach more wood flooring professionals with training opportunities when and where they want it," says NWFA President and CEOMichael Martin. "Our vision at the time was to offer a new, cost-effective, convenient way to provide training basics without the burden or cost of travel. Our hope at the time was to engage with younger generations in ways they already embraced – digitally. Never in our wildest dreams did we image we'd have an impact on an 11-year-old protégé." As it turns out, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as his father places a heavy emphasis on the importance of training.

Fall is almost here, and for many children across the U.S. that means it’s time to head back to school. But for Fineas Luca, the 11-year-old son of NWFAmember Dinu Luca, owner of ADL Floors Inc. inWoodinville, Washington, the concept of furthering his education took a much different path than most his age. Fineas is the youngest person to successfully complete all of the NWFA University (NWFAU) online courses in the Installation learning path and the Sand & Finish learning path. To accomplish this, he took 72 required courses and passed each of the assessments, scoring 80 percent or higher for each. Fineas committed to doing one lesson per day in addition to his homeschooling. When asked about his experience with the NWFAU, Fineas shared, “I really liked learning about the different species of wood. The subfloors section was probably the hardest.” He also shared that he plans to finish the Sales Certification track and looks forward to attending some hands-on training classes someday.

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