On the 14th April, the highly anticipated second annual inter-college construction competition took place, organised by Brooklands College. Seven institutions attended the five hour competition, including Swindon, Farnborough, Southampton City, Chichester, Oxford City, Ealing, Hammersmith & West London and North Kent College, representing a wide range of educational construction skills departments from across the country. MBH PLC is dedicated to supporting a wide variety of initiatives, motivating high quality skilled training practices for our youth. The British manufacturer continues to support the endeavours of Brooklands College and tutor Christian Hatherall-Good, donating quality bricks, fabricating bespoke trophies and the supply of bricklaying winners’ prizes for this event.
The competition, first introduced last year, has since expanded significantly to include a wider variety of participating colleges, sponsors and jurors, including thirty four students, aged between sixteen to nineteen, who took part over three categories; brickwork, carpentry and joinery, as well as painting and decorating.
Six of the colleges entered their students in the hotly contested brickwork category, with all competitors currently studying the level one bricklaying diploma within their first year of training.
Frank Hanna, Joint Chief Executive Officer of MBH PLC said: “It was great to be involved again this year, I’d like to think that we at MBH PLC are at the forefront of local further education, consistently playing our part in donating to initiatives for our youth. Our objective is to maintain this vital role, helping to train, educate and most importantly, meet the demand for bright, skilled workers in our construction sector. It was exciting to see the future of our industry hard at work, demonstrating their skills at this daylong event.”
Presentations were performed throughout the day by trade stands from Dunlop Pro decore, SPAX screws, Gorilla glue, Till gear tools, Direct trade tool distributor, Check a trade and Stihl Disc cutters.
Frank continues: “The standard of work from all the students, not just the winners, was extremely high, the competing candidates and colleges should be very proud of the craftsmanship on display today.”
Frank Hanna awarding first place to Joseph Ritchie. Below: Perpetual Trophies and Third place to Luke Neville.
The winners of the bricklaying category were Joseph Ritchie from Brooklands College taking first place, second was Billy Baxter attending from Farnborough College and Luke Neville in third, also from Brooklands College, judged by two members of The Institute of Clerks of Works & Construction Inspectorate (ICWCI) who work for Rund Partnership and a representative bricklayer from PJ Construction. Christian Hatherall-Good reiterated his delight in the College’s success saying: “I was so proud of all my students, they gave 100%.”
Gail Walker, Principal & CEO of Brooklands College said: “It is good to see that young people recognise the value of skill development in the construction industry and I was delighted to see so many young people from so many further education colleges attend the competition. The standard of skills was very high and they were a credit to their organisations. The brickwork staff at Brooklands College have worked extremely hard to ensure the day was a success and the positive comments from all of the employers I spoke to clearly demonstrated the value of the event.”
A successful day, it was a fantastic and inspirational educational experience for the students, encouraging them in their future careers.
