Day 5 of BMI Academy’s National Apprenticeship Week College Tour

National Apprenticeship Week 2023 is slowly coming to an end, and our team is marking Day 5 of their UK tour of roofing colleges and training centres.  

The event aims to shine a light on the apprenticeship system in the UK; how it is making a difference to the wider economy and the opportunities for employers and apprentices alike.

Supporting the weeklong activities, the BMI Academy team is touring across the UK, visiting colleges and training centres as a part of BMI’s continuous support for the development of young roofers. At each of their visits, the team have taken the time to speak to both students and lecturers, imparting knowledge about the most technical of roofing challenges, whilst also getting a chance to see what the future of roofing has to offer, by speaking to the apprentices about their experiences and plans for the future.

Yesterday saw the most action-packed day of the week, with four visits. Paul Martin, Technical Trainer at the BMI Academy, took a trip to Leeds Colleges of Building, BMI Academy Technical Training Manager, Simon Dixon, visited  CITB Glasgow and Derwentside College in Durham. And finally, Gary Larking, Training and Installation Manager at the BMI Academy took a trip to Eastern Region Training’s open day in Ipswich. 

Visiting Leeds College of Building

Leeds College of Building has a strong relationship with BMI, as many students have participated in the Apprentice of the Year competition, even producing some of the winners. And so, after giving an exclusive CPD session and presentation on the competition itself, Paul sat down with the students to see if they’d want to add to the college’s existing pool of competitors.

“I really like learning all of the new technicalities and intricacies of the materials that we work with. Getting to see different parts of the country and just getting out, having different scenery every day, and having a different challenge each day too; I think that’s the bit I like the most. Because you can’t just go into it without a plan, you have to think about it. As for the competition, even though I’m very new to this, I think I will give it a go, I don’t see why it can’t be me that wins.”

- Harry Johnson, apprentice at Greys Artstone and student at Leeds College of Building

Paul also spoke to Dave Mallory, who is one of the roofing tutors at Leeds College of Building. The two discussed what the students get out of the course, the benefits of National Apprenticeship Week, and Dave’s thoughts on the Apprentice of the Year competition. Having had multiple apprentices enter the competition and even win, Dave offered a unique perspective on this in particular.

“I think that with the course, the students get a lot of in-depth technical information, whereas, on-site, I don’t think they get that quite as much. So, by both working on site and coming to college, I think they tie a lot of skills together, which is a benefit to the industry as a whole.

To me, National Apprenticeship Week highlights the quality of the training that goes on across the country, which is reflected with so many training centres opening up across the country. So, it’s nice to see and I think apprenticeships are definitely the way forward for employers. And, for the apprentices themselves I think it gives them an insight into what’s out there, beyond just being in college.

I’ve supported the Apprentice of the Year competition from day one, I think it’s a brilliant competition. In my time teaching here, we’ve had some winners, some runners up, and some losers as well, but they all get a lot out of it; just meeting new people from across the country that are doing the same thing as them. I think it’s a positive right across the board.”

- Dave Mallory, Roofing Tutor at Leeds College of Building