Bricklaying students at Warrington & Vale Royal College get a helping hand with a brick donation by Forterra

This International Day of Education, 24^th January 2024, leading building products manufacturer Forterra is celebrating its educational initiatives, including its Construction Hub programme.

The International Day of Education is an annual global event celebrating education in all its forms and recognising the significant changes great education can help bring about.

Established in 2022, the Construction Hub programme invites colleges to partner with Forterra; benefitting from donations of building materials, tools, equipment, and access to industry expertise. With the new resources and the result of boosted learning capacities, the colleges have been working away training the next generation of brickmakers and joiners to plug the skills gap.

Most recently, Forterra has donated over 12,000 bricks to several technical colleges including Lewisham College in London, Stamford College in Lincolnshire and Warrington and Vale Royal College in Chesire, enabling them to enhance the projects students will be embarking on throughout the year, made possible by Forterra’s support.

Lewisham College is entering an all-female team in the upcoming London Apprenticeship Challenge apprentice competition. Stamford College has a number of Level 1 brickwork diploma learners and apprentices who are benefiting from the donation of quality bricks to which they now have access. Warrington and Vale Royal College is planning a Cheshire Skill in-house competition to develop its learner’s skillset and are hosting Super Trowel, a prestigious bricklaying competition open to professional bricklayers from across the UK, as a northern heat region.

Bob Noseda at Lewisham College said, “We’re hosting the Forterra London Apprenticeship Challenge for the 4th time at Lewisham College on March 21st. It’s a competition created by Forterra, where teams of three enter and are tasked with following a complex bricklaying plan, which has to be completed within a time limit. The final work is judged by select brickwork experts. Bricklaying tends to be a male-dominated course, so this year we are very excited to welcome the first all-female team from Lee Marley Brickwork.”

Tom Deignan at Stamford College said, “Our learners are using new materials from the Forterra Hub scheme, which has made a huge impact to the quality of product produced during their assessments. Using quality bricks is a huge benefit to learners who can hone their skills and see more clearly the structure they are creating as opposed to the rough finish pre-used bricks can result in. Forterra’s support enables learners to have a better training experience.”

Christopher Bennett at Warrington and Vale Royal College said “Forterra’s generous support has been a game changer for us. We can now plan extra-curricular activities way in advance, and we have the highest standard of workmanship in our workshop we’ve ever seen. We look forward to hosting more competitions especially the Super Trowel event later this year.”

Caroline Wildman, Marketing Director at Forterra said, “We are pleased to support education within the industry and are proud to have made an impact on future talent through Construction Hubs. Forterra is dedicated in supporting the continued development of high standards and technical skills in the bricklaying industry, helping to address the skills gap.”

As part of its continued support Forterra will be sending further brick deliveries to its Construction Hubs later this year. In addition, still in its early concept stages, Forterra is working on building a portal for Construction Hubs to access latest updates and information.

For more information on Forterra’s community and education projects, visit https://www.forterra.co.uk/about-us/community/.