What Qualifications Do You Need to be a Bricklayer?
Are you fresh out of school, college or just looking for a career change? Then bricklaying may be for you. So, we thought we would answer the much-asked question: what qualifications do you need to be a bricklayer? As always, it depends on the path you plan to take, some people train to become a bricklayer through an on-site apprenticeship program, others via a 4-year college course.
Desirable Skills and Qualities Needed for Bricklaying
Before we dive into the qualifications, there are a number of skills and qualities which are desirable and often times essential to possess before you can achieve success as a bricklayer. These include:
- Working well in a team
- Basic arithmetic
- Effective communication skills
- Flexibility and the ability to cope with change
- Ability to work well and remain calm under pressure
- An eye for detail
What Qualifications Do You Need to be a Bricklayer?
There are two main ways for you to obtain a qualification to become a bricklayer….
Path One to Becoming a Fully Qualified Bricklayer
If you have no previous site experience, you are likely to be enrolled in bricklaying apprenticeship college course, the course takes place on a full-time basis over four-years to allow the time for both studying and working on site. This form of bricklaying apprenticeship is a modern apprenticeship facilitated by Skills Development Scotland and Construction Industry Training Board (CITB); upon completion of the course, you will obtain an SVQ in Trowel Occupations (Construction) – SCQF Level 6.
This path is perfect for school leavers, it is an excellent way to upskill and learn an extremely valuable and sought-after trade, which is consistently high in demand across the construction industry. Due to our location, most of our apprentices attend Ayrshire College’s Ayr Campus to undertake this course.
Path Two to Becoming a Fully Qualified Bricklayer
At SLBC Ltd, we expect that our subcontractors would have undertaken the Level 2 NVQ in Trowel Occupations, as this course allows you to obtain qualifications whilst working on site. This qualification can only be obtained if you have previous site experience, i.e., working as a bricklayer’s labourer. The two-year Level 2 NVQ Trowel Occupations qualification is facilitated by a variety of training providers across the country, the one used by SLBC in this case is Competence Matters.
This way of gaining a bricklaying qualification is perfect for those who have a demonstratable interest in specialising their skills on site. Some of our bricklayer’s labourers have choose this path after gaining site and other relevant experience before deciding to pursue a career in the trade.
The Perks of Becoming a Bricklayer
With uncapped earning potential and the ability to learn a trade high in demand across the construction industry, a career in construction is definitely something to be considered for those who are currently looking to start a new career. We discuss more about bricklayer salaries and benefits in this post – How Much Do Bricklayers Make?, should you be looking for more information before pursuing a career in bricklaying.
Featured Blog Image and First Blog Image Credit: Canva.
