Following the swift recovery in housebuilding, figures have shown from the construction industry a lack of people available with the requisite skills. One of the biggest obstacles to overcoming Britain’s acute shortage of housing is linked to the lack of bricklayers, electricians and plasterers. There is also a lack of broad investment in education and vocational training which limits the next generation of skilled craftsman. This is why British manufacturer MBH PLC supports numerous initiatives to aid and promote youth education and why it has generously funded and donated products for the Inter-College bricklaying competition held at Brooklands College, Ashford Campus on Thursday 23rd April.
On St Georges day the first inter-College brickwork competition took place, attended by a wide variety of students and tutors from Brooklands, Richmond, Reading, Ealing, Hammersmith and West London Colleges. Organised by Christian Hatherall-good, brickwork tutor at Brooklands College who decided to host a competition after attending an Area of South East colleges (AOSEC) event, on embedding competitions into the course curriculum. He designed this event as a pre curser to SkillBuild and the Guild of bricklayer’s competition, as he wanted to introduce his students and other local Level 1 bricklaying students to the realms of brickwork competitions and the value of challenging their skills and techniques in this type of environment. The models were built in the five hour time frame, based on the students current course curriculum and included a diaper brickwork panel, four types of joint finishes, leveling and plumbing whilst showing off their ability to read a plan drawing, set the model out to the correct dimensions as well as maintaining the correct gauge for coursing.
The Judges represented a cross section from the construction industry to make the judging valid and fair. Judges included Mark Wall, Southern Regional Director of MBH PLC, Stephen Craig from Burwood Rumsby Developments Ltd, Paul Hodgkinson representing PJ Construction and Darryl Malkinson from Willmott Dixon. The Mayor of Spelthorne Cllr Suzie Webb also attended, displaying enthusiasm for the student efforts and commending MBH PLC and Christian Hatherall-good for their efforts in supporting youth training and education. In 1st place was Tyler Pearce (pictured right) from Brooklands College, 2nd place was Jason Curtis from Brooklands College and 3rd place went to Josh Penhill from Reading College.
Tyler Pearce, Mark Wall and Christian Hatherall-good
“MBH PLC is proud to use its position to help tackle skill shortages through the support of youth skilled training and we enjoy seeing the talent that is emerging,” stated Frank Hanna, Group Commercial Director. Christian Hatherall-good said, “I believe this Inter-College competition was a perfect opportunity to showcase the future talent of bricklayers who are being taught at Brooklands and local Colleges. We are hugely thankful to MBH PLC for making this event possible and next year I would like to invite more colleges to encourage their students to get involved.”
