Derby Brickies Could Be Biggest Earners In UK
Added by Love Business East Midlands | 19 October 2016
UPDATED: 19 October 2016
Brickies in Derby could be among the biggest earners in the country with some taking home £5,000 a week building flood defence walls.
Derbyshire based Hodgkinson Builders, run by Ian Hodgkinson, aka The ‘Hodfather’, landed a £2 million project that started earlier this year to build flood defence walls along a 13km stretch of the River Derwent.
Two of his bricklayers - Scott Jones and Gavin Ferns - found themselves with £5,000 each in their pockets in just one week after their hard graft saw them lay 20,000 bricks in a few days.
Ian Hodgkinson, who co-founded the National Construction Academy, which opened in Derby last Friday, says there is a lot of earning potential in bricklaying. He wants to attract people back into the trade to up the number of brickies in Britain so that the Government’s target of 250,000 new houses by 2018 can be met. At the moment there are only 250,000 brickies in the UK, that’s one brickie per house.
Ian said:
“I want more people to take up a career in bricklaying which is why we are launching the construction academy. Scott and Gavin are absolute bricklaying machines, they are extremely hard working and deserve every penny they earn. What people don’t realise is that bricklaying is not what it used to be. There is great earning potential and the opportunity to progress.
“I started out as an apprentice and now run a successful business. I want to give more people this opportunity. The fact that two of my guys are earning £5,000 goes to show what can be achieved and I hope the opening of the NCE will encourage more people into what is a lucrative career.”
The National Construction Academy (NCA) was officially opened by Nick Knowles on Friday 14th October. The academy has been set up to address the skills shortage in the construction industry by injecting fresh new talent into the industry through the delivery of high quality, industry focused apprenticeship programmes.
The academy currently offers a traineeship and apprenticeship in bricklaying to fast track candidates into the construction trade by combining high quality training and effective mentoring and support for young people. NCA is part of Aspire Achieve Advance (3AAA) an Ofsted Grade 1 training provider operating on a national basis.
Latest News
