Bradford Students Represent College at Prestigious ‘Guild of Bricklayers’ Competition

Construction students from across the region battled it out in an intense one-day competition to test their bricklaying skills. The Yorkshire heat of the Guild of Bricklayers competition was held on 27th May at Hull College’s construction workshop and was the first year the competition had taken place since Covid restrictions were lifted.

The Guild of Bricklayers was founded in 1932 to promote and maintain the highest standards of craftsmanship in brickwork. Alongside the UK’s construction college network, the Guild organise regional competitions with help from partners and sponsors Wienerberger AG & MPA mortar.

Bradford College has an excellent track record at the event. Former student Josh Smith won the Junior regional heat in 2019 and made it through to the national final. This year, the Yorkshire regional competition had three categories. The ‘New to Competitions’ section allows learners in their first year at College, generally not yet in employment and new to bricklaying, to acquire experience of competitive bricklaying.

The second category was the ‘Junior’ section which accommodates learners who are usually in the first year of an apprenticeship and enables them to compete. Lastly, the ‘Senior’ category is open to higher-level competitors, mainly those employed and with work experience in the final year of an apprenticeship.

This year, Bradley Lynn (a Year 1 Apprentice) volunteered to represent Bradford College and compete as a junior entrant. Callum Quinn represented the College in the ‘new to competitions’ section, however as student Shilah Zaman also asked to be considered, she was also entered into the same category.

This was a great event with all competitors fully engaged and committed to achieving a good result. The ‘new to competitions’ section was a very close-run event which saw Callum achieve third place and win a selection of bricklaying tools and equipment.

The junior section was particularly difficult for the appointed judges as they debated for an extra forty minutes to decide who placed first, second, and third! According to feedback, Bradley narrowly missed out on a place, however represented the College admirably by being the first competitor to complete his model.

Although Shilah did not win a place this time, she is one of the first Muslim women to compete in the Yorkshire region Guild of Bricklayers competition. All three College competitors received tools and certificates for competing so well.

Joe Lumb, Bradford College Bricklaying tutor, said:

“I would like to thank all three of our learners for their commitment, dedication, and hard work and congratulate them all with a special well done to Callum on his achievement.

“Working in a competitive environment is stressful and very hard work for all of the competitors, and I take my hat off to them all. When you think about the fact that this event was attended by colleges from all parts of Yorkshire, Leeds, Hull, York, Bishop Burton, Scarborough and Selby to name a few, you can understand the pressure that these learners were working under.

“Bricklaying can still be a predominantly male-dominated industry which makes the fact that Shilah volunteered to compete even more important. Well done!”