91Èȱ¬

The leaders of bricklaying courses in three West Midlands counties report no shortage of applicants but point to various challenges in linking students to the industry.

It comes as The National House Building Council (NHBC) estimates about 225,000 more construction workers are needed in the UK by 2027 to meet demand.

Course leaders in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Warwickshire hope the need can be met by their students, saying young people are showing an interest in learning the necessary skills.

They say the key, however, is finding jobs for the graduates - a match where there has been success even though issues remain, including those linked to schools and location.

Rob Lees, director of automotive construction and engineering at Telford College said: "The challenge is finding the apprenticeships, having enough companies out there to make enough vacancies available to us."

A lot of work could be found in big cities, he explained, and locally in town there were multiple building projects too. But he added work in more rural areas could depend on having brick-working skills suited to heritage projects - a specialism in which there was a skills gap.

Paul Blakeman, the head of training at Hercules PLC in Nuneaton, said bricklaying could lead to opportunities within the construction sector but they needed to be communicated to schools.

"Educating the young people while they're still at school has been a focus for a number of years but I don't think we've cracked it yet," he said.

"People from school are probably offered a route which bypasses construction."

Paul Stephens, a brickwork tutor on the City and Guilds Bricklaying course at Herefordshire and Ludlow College said local building firms were "very supportive of the college".

He said they would take on students when they reached a certain level and develop them further.

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