Testing student skills with our brickwork competition

Inspiring our students to constantly develop their skills and improve their confidence is very important to us as a college. Which is why we recently ran a brickwork skills competition at our Newport campus, to allow level 1 and 2 students to put their skills to the test.

Under the watchful eye of brickwork tutor Carl Curtis, the competition saw learners taking part in a timed competition to construct an attractive and functional wall, utilising the knowledge that they’ve gained over the past few months of their studies.

The competition was sponsored by a number of the college’s employer partners Gwent Construction Training Group, Y Prentis and St Modwen Homes, who gave up their time to attend the event and also kindly provided prizes for the top 3 students at each level.

The overall prize winners in the competition were:

Level 1

1^st Place: TJ Winmill

2^nd Place: Anthony Haines

3^rd Place: Cameron Thompson

Level 2

1^st Place: Aaron Boardman

2^nd Place: Logan McGregor

3^rd Place: Martyn Murphy

Speaking about the competition and the level of skill on show, Stewart Tossell, Senior Site Manager at St Modwen Homes said:

“It was great to be invited to Coleg Gwent recently to witness the Brick Skills Competition on behalf of St. Modwen Homes. I was really impressed by the work completed which was to an excellent standard and how engaged the young people were who I met. The future of Bricklaying in this region is great and well supported by Coleg Gwent.”

Employer engagement is a key element of what we do at Coleg Gwent, both to provide inspiration and experience for our learners and to ensure that we’re meeting the future skills demands of our local areas. We’re lucky to have so many excellent local employers support us in this work, with their support creating a benefits for all involved.

Speaking about their work with the college, Darryl Williams, Programme Manager for Y Prentis said:

“Y Prentis are pleased to sponsor the competitions as they showcase the talents and skills of students and tutors in the college and builds confidence. We are always on the lookout for quality candidates to fill our apprenticeship opportunities”.

Huge congratulations to our winners and to all of our talented learners who took part in the competition and massive thanks to our employer partners for their continued support.