To be able to start a bricklaying apprenticeship, you need to be employed for a minimum of 30 hours a week and attend college one day a week. Bricklayers lay bricks, blocks and other types of building components in mortar to construct and repair walls, foundations, partitions, arches and other structures, such as chimney stacks.
As part of your apprenticeship, you will learn how to complete basic bricklaying tasks and work with a variety of materials. Your day to day work will include measuring work areas and setting out the first courses of bricks or blocks and how to then set up corners. You will check that they are straight using a spirit level and a line. You will learn to mix mortar and understand how to work out the quantities required.
In our workshops, you will learn to set out masonry structures and construct masonry cladding. While in the workshop you will learn to apply different external finishes including pebble dashing and plastering curved surfaces.
While your practical skills are improving, it is essential that you understand the importance
of health and safety on site and safe working practices. In the building trades, good maths skills are essential and your apprenticeship will support developing these, both via a maths qualification and also by contextualised learning, for example understanding quantities, ratios and angles.
